In what way is chantilly similar to Paul Prudhomme? Uh, never mind. As far as we can tell, Chef Prudhomme has two versions of chantilly cream, one "plain" and one flavored with apple.

Chantilly cream or crème chantilly, as you recall, is sweetened whipped cream with a little vanilla or brandy. We will assume that Chef Prudhomme's variations and free-spirited mixings of alcohol have something to do with the good times of New Orleans and letting them roll, but one can't be certain.

In the chef's general recipe, he adds a bit of sour cream, both for flavor and to give the chantilly cream a little more body. The Grand Marnier, which is in addition to vanilla and brandy, gives it a bit of orange flavor. He beats 2/3 cup of heavy cream, 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract, 1 teaspoon of brandy, and 1 teaspoon of Grand Marnier for about 1 minute. Then he adds 1/4 cup of sugar and 2 tablespoons of sour cream, and beats the mixture on medium speed just until soft peaks form, which is likely to take another three minutes. Do not overbeat it, he says, or it will only be suitable for spreading on toast.

Chef Prudhomme uses a variation, Apple Chantilly Cream, to finish his recipe for Apple Cake (Gâteau aux Pommes), the recipe for which may be found in The Prudhomme Family Cookbook – now out of print, but still widely available used. For the variation, the ingredients and process are the same, except he leaves our the sour cream and substitutes 1/4 cup of apple syrup when he adds the sugar.

He makes the apple syrup himself, as the basis for the Apple Cake, by peeling and coring five medium Granny Smith apples, putting the cores and peels in a pan with 1/2 cup of the chopped apples, 3 cups of water, and 1/2 cup of sugar, boiling them over high heat (stirring occasionally) for 25 to 30 minutes and then straining the mixture. He says that produces about 1 cup of syrup.

That is probably too much effort to make the syrup needed for a little whipped cream. It's not the easiest thing to track down, but we would probably try to find a commercial apple syrup on the market if all we needed was a quarter cup.