All in all, what can I do with this half and half?

April 14, 2022 7:06 PM

Among the multitudinous leftovers from the lunch spread following my son's bar mitzvah a week and a half ago was an entire unopened quart of half-and-half with a sell-by date of, basically, now. I won't even get a fraction of the way through it using it in my coffee before it goes bad. What amazing, scrumptious, Passover-friendly dessert can be made with the whole quart (or almost the whole quart) in one go?

Hoping for something a bit out of the ordinary or off the beaten path of desserts. We're a family of four plus a couple guests at the weekend's Seder, so nothing that makes gigantic voluminous quantities of something unless it keeps well. Most basic pantry ingredients are at hand or can be obtained. Given Passover, no flour or cornstarch or oats etc. Thanks!

posted by sesquipedalia to Food & Drink (17 answers total)

Apple crisp made with a matzoh crumble crust, baked, and with the half and half poured over it? Ooh I want some please
posted by sonofsnark at 7:08 PM on April 14, 2022

Best answer: make a sherbet... that one is strawberry and would be delicious with half and half instead of milk
posted by fingersandtoes at 7:10 PM on April 14, 2022 [1 favorite]

a chocolate pudding with potato starch would not be super flashy but very easy and tasty. A cup of sugar, two-thirds of a cup of cocoa powder, some butter and vanilla to taste, a pinch of salt, and maybe 4-5 tablespoons of potato starch or more if you want it thick. Pour everything in and heat to a simmer, whisking constantly to avoid lumps. You can layer it with bananas and whipped cream in glasses if you want a cool presentation.
posted by goingonit at 7:22 PM on April 14, 2022

How about the richest rice pudding ever made?
posted by lulu68 at 7:33 PM on April 14, 2022 [3 favorites]

A vodka tomato sauce for pasta will use up a cup of it (or 2 cups, if you double the recipe and freeze some), and it's really tasty.
posted by Greg_Ace at 7:39 PM on April 14, 2022 [1 favorite]

Mashed potatoes! Yeah, yeah ,yeah.
posted by Oyéah at 7:54 PM on April 14, 2022

You can make pudding out of it with just a couple of tablespoons of corn starch (or other thickener), a little vanilla, and some sugar.
posted by amtho at 7:57 PM on April 14, 2022

Best answer: Flan or creme brulee is fabulous and rich with half and half.
posted by citygirl at 7:59 PM on April 14, 2022 [4 favorites]

I'd definitely include the Pioneer Woman's mashed potato recipe -- use the higher end of her suggestion, so 3/4 cup. (And honestly I usually make 1.5x or 2x the recipe because my family loves these things reheated over the following days.)
posted by BlahLaLa at 8:10 PM on April 14, 2022

I might have bad tastebuds but I have frozen ice cube sized to quart sized quantities of half n half and used it later for cooking (after thawing and thoroughly re-mixing) in case you don’t finish it all today. Might mess up the texture too much for making custards or ice creams, but should work well in a lot of suggestions here- cakes, mashed potatoes, béchamel sauce for Mac n cheese, or in a tomato pasta sauce, rice pudding, or other applications where the milk texture isn’t as important.
posted by holyrood at 8:12 PM on April 14, 2022 [2 favorites]

strawberries lightly sugared (with confection sugar) in cream. Peaches work too.
posted by Toddles at 9:55 PM on April 14, 2022 [1 favorite]

The world needs more custard.
posted by How much is that froggie in the window at 11:20 PM on April 14, 2022 [2 favorites]

Agree with Holyrood above. I don't drink milk or use much non-cheese dairy but if I need to buy some for a recipe I freeze the rest and it's always fine. I even used thawed heavy cream for a ganache once. I was worried about the texture, which was grainy right after it thawed- but I blitzed it with a stick blender as it was warming up to a boil and it was nearly perfect- like, I wouldn't use it if I was taking my patisserie test at the Cordon Bleu or whatever but for a cake filling for a kid's birthday it was fine.

Milk and cream do turn a weird shade of yellow when frozen but go back to normal when thawed.
posted by cilantro at 2:06 AM on April 15, 2022

How about making ice cream with it? If you don't have an ice cream maker, ask around - I bet someone will loan you theirs.

Here is even a charoset ice cream recipe. And a bunch of other Passover-specific possibilities. Or really, a nice vanilla or strawberry or coffee ice cream.
posted by vunder at 9:34 AM on April 15, 2022

It freezes well, so you could put in in smaller containers and have it for coffee for quite a while. You can freeze liquids, flat, in a good ziplock bag, and break off what you need. Unopened half & half should be fine well beyond its sell-by date.
posted by theora55 at 9:47 AM on April 15, 2022 [1 favorite]

Panna cotta can be made with half and half instead of cream, here's a Kitchn panna cotta recipe from someone who prefers it that way. If you have kosher gelatin this seems like it would be pretty easy and use up a lot of your quart.
posted by expialidocious at 10:54 AM on April 15, 2022

Response by poster: FWIW I wound up using 3/4 of it, plus a half-dozen eggs, a half-cup of sugar, and some vanilla and orange zest to make a pretty decent flan. The sherbet sounded like a great option as well but I didn't make it out of the house to pick up the additional fruit I would've needed. But it's a very easy recipe (since I do have a freezer-canister ice cream maker) and a good option to keep in mind down the road.

Thanks for all the ideas!
posted by sesquipedalia at 11:47 AM on April 18, 2022