That's one of the great challenges of this Internet thing, isn't it – holding before our very eyes things that sometimes only exist thousands of miles away (especially foods)?

Even those of us surrounded by the absolute bounty of our own country can grow a little misty-eyed at the descriptions and photos of certain cheeses, meats, produce, etc., that can only be found in other countries – or other countries for major portions of the year. Some of us are still convinced that the best produce and seafood we ever had was in Morocco – but we just can't just run off at the drop of a hat.

Commercially produced sour cream in this country is four or five times thicker than fresh cream (and still quite a bit thicker than raw cream that has been allowed to sour naturally), and has a different flavor.

Rather than substitute fresh cream for sour cream, we would choose another recipe. The excellent news is that we recently posted our favorite brownie recipe in response to another question, and it does not require cream in any form. You may have to play around with the chocolate and sugar ratios if you do not have both unsweetened and semisweet (40%+ chocolate liquor) chocolate available, but we're sure you can figure out a way to make it work.