If your idea of strawberries and cream is a bowl of berries with a jug of cream poured over at a summer tea, the Mexican version will surprise you. Fresas con crema (FREH-sahs kohn KREH-mah) is a cup of chopped strawberries buried in a thick, cold, sweet cream made from three dairy products: Mexican canned cream, sour cream and sweetened condensed milk. It is sold in clear cups at ice cream shops and street stands across Mexico, and in plenty of Mexican snack shops in the US. It needs no stove, takes about 20 minutes, and the cream can be made the night before.
What is fresas con crema?
How do you make Mexican strawberries and cream? Whisk one 7.6 oz (225 g) can of media crema, 1 cup (230 g) sour cream, ⅔ cup (200 g) sweetened condensed milk and 1 tsp vanilla, all chilled, until smooth. Rinse 2.2 lb (1 kg) strawberries with their tops on, dry them, slice and dice them, and layer fruit and cream in 12 oz cups just before serving. 20 minutes for 6 cups.
The two desserts share a name and not much else:
- British strawberries and cream is fresh berries with single or double cream poured over, sometimes a spoonful of sugar. The cream is plain and the strawberries do the talking.
- Fresas con crema sweetens and thickens the cream before it meets the fruit. Condensed milk brings the sweetness and body, sour cream a slight tang that stops it from being cloying, and the result is closer to a loose, spoonable cheesecake filling than to pouring cream. It is eaten with a spoon from a tall cup, not from a bowl.
Every family and every stand has its own cream. The simplest is media crema with a little condensed milk; others add sour cream for body, and some thin it with evaporated milk. This recipe uses all three main dairy products, which gives the cream that holds best in the cup.
Ingredients and US and UK swaps
The exact amounts are in the recipe card. Media crema is the one ingredient you may not know: a thick, neutral-tasting table cream sold in 7.6 oz (225 g) cans that do not need refrigerating until opened. Chilled, it is noticeably thicker than at room temperature, which is why the can goes in the fridge ahead of time.
| You need | Where to find it | Swap and what changes |
|---|---|---|
| Media crema, 1 can (7.6 oz / 225 g) | US: the Latin or Hispanic aisle of most supermarkets. UK: Latin American grocers and online | US: refrigerated Mexican crema works and tastes slightly tangier. UK: single cream is close in richness but pours thinner, so the cup is looser; chill it well |
| Sour cream, 1 cup (8 oz / 230 g) | Dairy aisle in both countries (soured cream in the UK) | Crème fraîche or plain Greek yogurt make it thicker and tangier; yogurt also makes it lighter |
| Sweetened condensed milk, ⅔ cup (200 g) | Baking aisle, in 14 oz (397 g) cans or tins | No real swap: sugar does not thicken, so the cream ends up runnier |
| Vanilla extract, 1 tsp | Anywhere | Mexican vanilla if you have it |
| Evaporated milk, optional | Baking aisle | Regular whole milk does the same job of loosening the cream |
Using heavy or double cream. Unwhipped, it is thinner than chilled media crema and the cups go watery. Whip it first to soft peaks, the ones that flop over at the tip, then fold in the condensed milk and sour cream. You get a lighter, cloud-like cream that slowly loses volume if it sits in the fridge for hours.
Two-ingredient version. One can of media crema with ¼ cup of condensed milk is the most basic cream. It is runnier and milkier, with no tang.
How to make it, step by step
Washing and cutting berries so they stay dry
- Wash them right before using, not when you get home from the store. Berries stored wet go soft and spoil faster.
- Keep the tops on and rinse them in a colander under cold running water, rubbing gently. The top plugs the hole where water would get in.
- No soaking. A bowl of water softens them and washes out flavor.
- Dry them. Spread them on a clean towel or paper towels, pat the tops and give them 10 minutes. This one step removes most of the water that would end up in the cup.
- Hull and cut. Half in ¼ in (5 mm) slices, which show through the side of the cup, and half in ⅜ in (1 cm) dice, which fill the gaps.
Skip the sugar. It pulls juice out of strawberries within minutes, and that juice is what thins the cream.
Getting the cream right
Whisk the cold dairy by hand for a minute, just until smooth; there is no need for a mixer. You are looking for a thick ribbon that falls from the spoon and sits on the surface for a moment before sinking in. If it is runnier than that, chill the bowl for 30 minutes. If it is too stiff, add a spoonful of evaporated milk.
Building the cup
In a clear 12 oz (355 ml) cup: 2 tablespoons of cream in the bottom, half the sliced berries for that cup leaning against the sides, another layer of cream, the diced berries, and cream to the top. That way every spoonful has fruit and cream instead of all the fruit sinking to the bottom. Each cup takes about 5½ oz (160 g) of hulled berries, roughly a cup of chopped fruit, and a little under ½ cup of cream.
Why it goes watery, and other mistakes
- A pink puddle at the bottom. Wet berries, sugared berries, or cups filled hours ahead. Dry the fruit, skip the sugar and assemble to order.
- Thin cream from the start. Room-temperature dairy, or unwhipped heavy cream. Use everything straight from the fridge, and if needed give the bowl 30 minutes of chilling.
- Too sweet. A whole can of condensed milk with no sour cream. Stir in sour cream or plain yogurt a spoonful at a time.
- Bland, soft berries. Strawberries do not keep ripening once picked. Buy firm, glossy berries that are red right up to the stem; white patches near the top mean underripe and sour.
- Soggy toppings. Granola and cookie crumbs lose their crunch within minutes in the cream. They go on top, at the table.
Toppings
The usual ones at Mexican stands, 1 or 2 tablespoons per cup, added at the last minute:
- Granola, for crunch.
- Chopped pecans or walnuts, whose slight bitterness balances the sweet cream.
- Crushed Maria cookies (rich tea biscuits in the UK), between the layers or on top.
- Chocolate chips or chocolate sauce.
- Mini marshmallows.
- A drizzle of condensed milk, for anyone with a serious sweet tooth.
A mint leaf freshens it up. The same cream works with peaches, mango or mixed berries.
Making it for a party or to sell
One batch fills six 12 oz (355 ml) cups, or about nine 8 oz (240 ml) ones. To scale up, multiply the whole batch:
| 12 oz cups | Strawberries | Media crema | Sour cream | Condensed milk | Vanilla |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | 2.2 lb (1 kg) | 1 can (7.6 oz / 225 g) | 1 cup (230 g) | ½ can (200 g) | 1 tsp |
| 12 | 4.4 lb (2 kg) | 2 cans (450 g) | 2 cups (460 g) | 1 can (400 g) | 2 tsp |
| 24 | 8.8 lb (4 kg) | 4 cans (900 g) | 4 cups (920 g) | 2 cans (800 g) | 4 tsp |
How I would organize it:
- The night before: the cream. Whisk it and keep it covered in the fridge. By morning it is as thick as when you made it, or thicker.
- On the day: the berries. Wash, dry and cut them that morning, and keep them in a shallow covered container in the fridge, unsugared.
- The cups: to order. With cream and fruit ready, each cup takes under a minute. If you must fill some ahead, lid them, refrigerate and sell them the same day.
- Keep it cold. Carry cream and fruit in a cooler with ice or ice packs, at 40°F (4°C) or below. Anything out of the cold for more than 2 hours, or 1 hour above 90°F (32°C), gets thrown away.
- Toppings on the side, in closed containers so they stay crisp.
The strawberries are the biggest cost: they are more than half of what goes into each cup. Buy them firm and fully red so you are not throwing away bruised ones.
How long it keeps
- The cream on its own, covered in the fridge: up to 3 days, as long as the dairy is not close to its use-by date.
- Washed and cut berries, covered in the fridge: best the same day; by day two they are softer and sitting in juice.
- Filled cups: the same day, in the fridge. I find they are past their best after a few hours, once the berries start leaking into the cream.
- At room temperature: no more than 2 hours, since it is a dairy dessert.
- Freezer: do not freeze filled cups, because thawed strawberries turn soft and watery. What does work is pouring the cream mixed with chopped strawberries into ice pop molds and freezing for 6 to 8 hours, for strawberries-and-cream ice pops.
Frequently asked questions
Can I use frozen strawberries? You can, but they change the dessert. Thawed berries release a lot of juice and go soft, so drain them well in a colander and expect a pinker, looser cream. For cups that look good, use fresh.
Is fresas con crema the same as Eton mess? No. Eton mess folds strawberries into whipped cream with crushed meringue. Fresas con crema has no meringue, and its cream is sweetened with condensed milk and sharpened with sour cream rather than whipped.
How do I make it less sweet or lighter? Halve the condensed milk to 100 g (⅓ cup) and use plain Greek yogurt instead of sour cream. It ends up tangier and fresher.
Is it gluten-free? The cream and fruit contain no gluten or egg; the allergen is milk. Gluten can come in with the toppings, since granola and Maria cookies usually contain it unless labeled gluten-free.
Nutrition
Per cup, with the batch divided into six, worked out ingredient by ingredient from the quantities in this recipe, without toppings or evaporated milk:
- Calories: 311 kcal
- Protein: 6 g
- Carbohydrates: 34 g
- Fat: 18 g, of which 10 g saturated
- Fiber: 3 g
- Sugars: 29 g
- Sodium: 83 mg
About a third of the calories come from the condensed milk, so that is the ingredient to adjust if you want to move the numbers.
For a Mexican dessert table, these cups sit well next to a Mexican mosaic gelatin, also made with condensed milk and set the day before, and a no-bake Mexican lime pie. If you like fruit in sweet cream, the Mexican Christmas apple salad is from the same family, with media crema and condensed milk. And for a Colombian cup of fruit and condensed milk over shaved ice, try the Colombian cholado.
At home fresas con crema is what we make when the strawberries are good and nobody wants to turn the oven on. I used to fill all the cups early so they would be ready, and by dessert time each one had water at the bottom. Now the cream sits in one bowl, the fruit in another, and everyone builds their own. Josnaisis.