Chantilly – is it a Cream, a Castle, a Lace or a Cat?

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hantilly [ʃɑ̃tiji]. Try to pronounce it with that French, nasal sound. It sounds so aristocratic and fancy, doesn’t it? At first I thought Chantilly is just a name for the cream. When I became curious and started to explore, to my surprise I’ve found that many other things have that same name! So, let me tell you everything I’ve learned! Chantilly is a name of a commune – an administrative division – in northern France, just 38.4 km (23.9 miles) north-northeast from the center of Paris.

In that same region, there is a historic, Renaissance style castle – Château de Chantilly [ʃɑ.to də ʃɑ̃.ti.ji], where, between the year 1730 and 1800, was produced French soft-paste porcelain. Its name, surprise – surprise, was of course – Chantilly!

In the same castle, you will find something called “Chantilly codex” – a manuscript of medieval music that dates from 14th century. In the 17th century, one more invention was created and named after the famous commune – it was Chantilly lace, a handmade bobbin lace made in linen and silk, and the most popular at the time was, interestingly, black Chantilly lace.

The biggest surprise for me was that the cat breed derived mainly from cross-breeding long-haired Asians and Burmese is named Chantilly-Tiffany cat! It seems that this one doesn’t have anything in common with the French castle let alone the famous Charles Lewis Tiffany!

Well – my head is spinning, I can tell you that, from all this Chantilly talk, so I’ll get down to my favorite Chantilly – the Chantilly Cream!

What is Chantilly Cream?

Chantilly cream or crème Chantilly is a very fancy name for sweetened whipped cream. I hope you are not too disappointed, because crème Chantilly is the lightest cream that melts in your mouth divinely, especially when in combination with a crispy choux pastry, freshly baked puff pastry, or in black forest cake – accompanied by chocolate sponge cake and kirsch soaked cherries. The secret of subtleness lies in simplicity.

How to Make Chantilly Cream?

There are three ways to make this simple bonne bouche, but first I’ll teach you about ingredients. You need to have proper ingredients at the correct temperature. Use whipping cream, with at least 30% fat or, even better, double cream with 40% fat. The cream should be cold from the fridge because warm cream is impossible to whip. I would also recommend that you chill the bowl before whipping. You can simply put it in the fridge, or take one large bowl, fill it with ice cubes and cold water and then put a smaller bowl inside the big one. Whip your cream on ice bath. Next is sugar. I like to use powdered sugar, but you can also use superfine – caster sugar that will easily dissolve in the cream. And last, but not least – Chantilly cream needs vanilla! Use extract, powder, or freshly scraped vanilla pod. So much for ingredients.

Now, let’s learn three techniques of making Crème Chantilly:

1. Put the cold cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla into a cold bowl. Whip using your balloon whisk until soft peaks form.

2. Put the cream, powdered sugar and vanilla into a bowl of a stand mixer. Whip with a whisk attachment until soft peaks form.
3. Use a siphon. Fill it with the mixture of cream, vanilla, and powdered sugar. Charge your siphon with the cartridge, shake and go!

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