Chantilly cream is a sweet whipped cream.

“Chantilly cream” and “whipped cream” are creams in which air is incorporated by whipping. The Chantilly cream is made with liquid fresh cream, 35% fat cream. Whipped cream contains 75% cream or light cream, which can be sweetened (up to 15% maximum of its composition) and contain lactic acid bacteria, natural flavors, stabilizers, or milk proteins. Chantilly cream is a type of “whipped cream” (without lactic ferments) which must contain at least 30% fat, and be at least 15% sweet.

If the cream and the instruments (bowl, whisk) are not cold enough, butter is obtained. It is the same if we continue to beat or mix too long whipped cream obtained. The whipped cream, often sweet and flavored, originates from Italy where it was appreciated from the 16th century. It was then called “milk snow” (neve di latte). An English recipe from 1545 adds egg whites.

The invention of Chantilly cream is often attributed to François Vatel, butler from the Château de Chantilly. Vatel might have served this “shaped cream” during the sumptuous reception of the king by the Prince of Condé in April 1671. Others claim that the cooks of Catherine de Medici introduced it from Italy afterwards her marriage to Henry II. A century after Vatel, the Baronne d’Oberkirch praised the “cream” served at a lunch at the Hameau de Chantilly in 1784, without calling it “crème Chantilly”.  This episode is sometimes cited as the “birth of Chantilly cream although the names of” Chantilly cream “or” Chantilly “appear at the beginning of the 19th century. The reference to Chantilly comes from the association of the eponymous castle with good cuisine or refers to the soft porcelain paste of Chantilly with a perfect white.

Level of difficulty : easy

Prep time : 10 min

Rest time : –

Total time : 10 min

Yield : 2 cups Chantilly cream

2 cups liquid cream or floret, whole (30% fat minimum) and very cold (*)

1/2 cup icing sugar

1 tbsp vanilla sugar

1 tbsp creamfix (option)

• Beforehand :
  • Cream : the cream must be whole, liquid and refrigerated for several hours and then in the freezer 15 min before mounting.
  • Utensils : the container for assembling the whipped cream should preferably be a stainless steel bowl and the whips put in the freezer a few hours before. A second larger container or sink will hold cold water halfway up and ice cubes.

• Preparation :
  • Place the stainless steel bowl in the ice cube and pour in the liquid cream. 
  • Start beating for 1 min, while the cream begins to foam.
  • Mix the sugars and possibly a sachet of creamfix if the whipped cream is to hold for a long time) and add them to the cream.
  • Vigorously beat the cream with a whisk by hand for about 7 to 10 minutes (half the amount with a whipped cream or an electric mixer: change speed from the slowest to the fastest every 30 seconds or so).
  • As soon as a “bird’s beak” forms when you take out the whisk, the Chantilly cream is ready.
  • Put in the refrigerator about 2h.
  • Exit when serving and place in a pastry bag.
  • Use and enjoy !