February 28, 2014
Rob
23

Recipe: Paris-Brest with mousseline cream

It was 1910 when pastry chef Louis Durand created upon request one of the most famous French desserts of all time, the Paris-Brest.

Recipe---Paris-Brest---01

The request came from the organizer of a popular “Paris-Brest-Paris” bicycle race (which still exists today but is only open to amateurs) who wanted a dessert to be served at the arrival.

Recipe---Paris-Brest---07

The Paris-Brest is traditionally made of a ring of choux pastry filled with a praliné mousseline cream and its shape resembles that of a bicycle wheel.

Recipe---Paris-Brest---04

I absolutely love the looks of this dessert, which is perfect and stunning in its simplicity.

The recipe calls for praliné, a paste made by mixing caramelized hazelnuts and almonds: it can be bought in professional shops or also home made (120g of hazelnuts and almonds for 80g of sugar).

A tip for the recipe: for the mousseline cream it is very important that the butter be at the same temperature of the pastry cream (i.e. not too hot, not too cold) otherwise it will either melt or solidify and form lumps.

This is definitely one of my favourite desserts! It’s a shame that in other countries it’s not as popular as in France!

 

Paris-Brest with praliné mousseline cream

Print recipe
Paris-Brest with praliné mousseline cream
From book On baking

Ingredients

Choux pastry

70gMilk
70gWater
1 pinchSalt
60gUnsalted butter
90gBread flour
~150gEggs (~3 eggs)

Pastry cream

250gMilk
1/2Vanilla bean
40gGranulated sugar
3Egg yolks
18gCornstarch
90gUnsalted butter (cold)

Praliné mousseline cream

60gPraliné paste
90gUnsalted butter (diced - room temperature)

Decoration

Powdered sugar (as needed)
Sliced almonds (as needed)

Directions

Choux pastry

1
Bring the milk, water, salt and butter to a boil in a saucepan. Make the sure the butter is fully melted before reaching the boiling point.
2
Remove from the heat and immediately add all the flour.
3
Stir with a spatula or wooden spoon then put the pan back on the heat and continue beating the dough
4
Keep drying the dough up on the heat only for a few minutes until it comes away from the sides of the pan and leaves a thin film on the bottom of the saucepan
5
Transfer the dough to a clean bowl and let it cool down for a few minutes
6
Add an egg and stir until it is completely absorbed in the dough
7
Add all the other eggs one at a time. Slightly beat the last egg before adding it then pour it slowly little by little on the batter, checking frequently if it has reached the right consistency.
When the batter is shiny but firm (i.e. not runny), it is ready to be used with a piping bag.
8
Draw two 18cm circles on parchment paper
9
Flip the parchment paper sheet (so that the ink is not in contact with the choux pastry). Using a pastry bag fitted with a large star (or plain) tip, pipe a first ring following the circle you've drawn
10
Pipe a second inner ring. Make sure the joint is in a different place from the outer circle.
11
Finally, pipe a third ring on top of the other two. Once again, make sure the joint is far from that of the bottom rings.
12
On the other side of the pan, pipe another ring of choux pastry
13
Brush the rings lightly with egg wash
14
Sprinkle the bigger ring with sliced almonds
15
Bake at 170° for about 45-50 minutes or until the choux pastry rings are golden brown and well dried.

Pastry cream

16
In the meantime, heat the milk with half of the sugar and the vanilla bean in a saucepan
17
In a bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, sugar and corn starch
18
When the milk is boiling, pour it in three times over the egg mixture through a strainer and mix every time to prevent the yolks from curdling
19
Put back the liquid mixture into the saucepan and cook on medium heat whisking continuously
20
Allow the pastry cream to boil for 2 minutes then remove from the heat, add the cold, diced butter and whisk again until it is fully incorporated
21
Pour the cream in a large container, cover with plastic wrap and store in the fridge

Praliné mousseline cream

22
When the cream is at around 25°C, whip it at medium speed in the bowl of a mixer with the praliné paste
23
Incorporated the soft, diced butter little by little and keep on whipping for around 5 minutes until the cream is soft and airy

Assembling the Paris-Brest

24
When the choux pastry ring has cooled down, slice the bigger ring of choux pastry in half horizontally with a serrated knife (the tip of the knife should be at all times in the ring hole; do not try to slice the ring like a cake)
25
Place the smaller ring inside the bottom half of the bigger ring
26
Pipe the mousseline cream on the bottom half of the baked ring in a connecting chain of rosettes (converging towards the inner hole) using a medium star tip and pastry bag
27
If you feel your Paris-Brest is not tall enough, you can add another yummy layer of cream on top of the previous one
28
Replace the top half
29
Dust with powdered sugar

Note

  • Tip: try adding some chunks of caramelized hazelnuts into the cream after piping!
  • If the cream is too soft to be piped you can refrigerate it for a few minutes, but be careful, because its big quantity of butter will make it solid quickly and impossible to pipe.
  • Of course the cream can be stored up to 3 days into the fridge, but if you want to pipe it, you will have to whip it again to incorporate air and make it lighter.

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