Chantilly
Cold double cream whipped with a little icing sugar and vanilla into soft peaks, ready in 5 minutes with no cooking.
Photograph credit: Crème Chantilly by Paul Downey · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Chantilly is whipped cream with a little sugar and vanilla, and its name is the one used in French pastry kitchens for the cream that goes on everything. The cream is the whole matter, and it must be cold.
Put the bowl and whisk in the freezer for 10 minutes first. Cold fat holds air, and warm cream turns to butter before it whips. Use double cream or whipping cream, which has at least 35 per cent fat, because lighter cream will not hold its shape. Start slowly and speed up as it thickens: the cream goes from liquid to thick to soft peaks in about 3 minutes by hand.
Add the icing sugar and vanilla as it begins to thicken, because the sugar dissolves faster than caster sugar and the cream stays smooth. Stop whisking when the cream holds a soft peak that folds over at the tip. Another 10 seconds takes it to a grainy, buttery state, and once it has turned, it cannot be saved. Use it at once on tarts, fruit, waffles and cakes.
How to Make Chantilly
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Chill a bowl and whisk in the freezer for 10 minutes.
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Pour in the cream and whisk slowly, speeding up as it thickens.
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Add the icing sugar and vanilla and whisk to soft peaks.
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Use at once.
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Worth Getting Right
- Chill the bowl, whisk and cream.
- Stop whisking at soft peaks.
- Use icing sugar, which dissolves quickly.
Serve It With
Strawberries · Tarts · Waffles · Hot chocolate
Leftovers and Storage
Best fresh. Keeps for 1 day covered in the fridge; whisk briefly to refresh.
The Numbers per Serving
Per serving, calculated from the ingredient list with USDA FoodData Central figures (SR Legacy). A calculation, not a laboratory analysis: brands, cuts and how you measure change the real numbers. How the figures are worked out.
Your notes on this recipe
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Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked. Found a mistake? Tell us.
First published ; last changed .
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