Paris Brest Pastry

Paris Brest is a decadent French pastry, made from the same crisp, pâte à choux dough as cream puffs, generously filled with a luxurious hazelnut praline cream. They are defined by their circular shape, reminiscent of a bicycle wheel, invented for a celebration of the Paris-Brest-Paris bicycle race that happens every 4 years. Read more about that here. You’ll often see Paris Brest as a single large, show-stopper of a pastry, but I think the individual size looks more elegant and is easier to create.

Note to vegetarians: This recipe includes a little gelatin in the diplomat cream because it needs to be piped higher than something like a Napoleon to achieve the right look. It also support the weight of the nut-topped choux. You can leave it out, but still use the full 1¾ cups whole milk, adding it to the saucepan at once.

Paris Brest Recipe:

Yield:
6 pastries

Difficulty:
Advanced

Plan ahead:
The diplomat cream needs time to chill before it can be piped. This can be done a day ahead of time.

Special equipment:

Ateco 867 French piping tip and Wilton 4B open star piping tip, or piping tips of equivalent sizes.
Pastry bags
Wax paper or silicon baking mat

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Ingredients:

Candied Hazelnuts:

¼ cup granulated sugar
1 TBSP unsalted butter
1 cup chopped unsalted hazelnuts, skins removed (How to remove hazelnut skins)

Hazelnut Praline:

¾ cup candied hazelnuts
1 TBSP vegetable oil
¼ tsp salt

Paris Breast Diplomat Cream:

2 tsp unflavored gelatin
1¾ cups whole milk, divided into ¼ cup and 1 ½ cups
⅓ cup granulated sugar
3 TBSP cornstarch
5 large egg yolks, room temperature
1½ tsp vanilla extract
¼ tsp salt
4 TBSP unsalted butter cut into cubes, room temperature
1 cup heavy whipping cream, cold

Choux Dough:

75 grams water
75 grams whole milk
75 grams unsalted butter
5 grams granulated sugar
3 grams table salt
100 grams bread flour, sifted
3 large eggs, room temperature, lightly beaten
3 tbsp powdered / confections sugar, for dusting
¼ cup chopped hazelnuts, skins removed

Topping:

Powdered / confectioners sugar

Instructions:

Make the candied hazelnuts: Line a baking sheet with wax paper or silicon baking mat and set aside. In a small saucepan, add the sugar and butter and heat over a medium flame, stirring constantly, when the sugar starts to melt, add the chopped hazelnuts and continue stirring until all of the sugar has melted and the mixture coats the nuts. Immediately turn out onto the prepared sheet and press down to flatten with a spatula. Do this quickly, the candy will harden before you know it. Reserve ¼ cup of the candied nuts for the assembly.

Make the praline: Once cool enough to handle (it shouldn’t take long), add ¾ cups of the candied nuts, vegetable oil, and salt to a processor and pulse until a paste forms. Add more vegetable oil if needed, 1 TBSP at a time. Set aside.

Start the diplomat cream: Sprinkle the gelatin over ¼ cup whole milk to soften. While the gelatin softens, whisk together the sugar, cornstarch and room temperature egg yolks in a medium size bowl. Add the remaining milk, vanilla and salt to a medium size saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat, stirring to prevent the milk from burning on the bottom of the pan. Once simmering, turn off the heat and add approximately ⅓ of the milk to the eggs. Whisk the mixture vigorously to combine, then pour it all back into the saucepan whisking while you pour. Turn the heat back to medium and whisk until the mixture thickens, then reduce the heat to low and continue to cook for another 4 or 5 minutes or until the mixture bubbles and breaks on the surface. Remove from heat.

Set a mesh strainer on top of a clean bowl and pour or press the pastry cream through. Whisk in the soften gelatin, then whisk the cubes of butter into the pastry cream, one at a time, until thoroughly blended. Press plastic wrap directly onto the surface of the cream so a skin doesn’t form on top, and refrigerate until cool but not completely set. 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Whip the heavy cream to stiff peaks. Remove the pastry cream from the refrigerator and whisk in the hazelnut praline until combined. Gently fold whip cream into the pastry cream until visibly blended. Cover and refrigerate until set, at least 3 hours.

Make the choux rings: (If you’ve never made pâte à choux before, I suggest reading my cream puffs recipe. I include a lot of detail and photos of how the dough should look while you’re making it.

Preheat oven to 350° F and line a baking sheet with parchment or silicon baking mats.

Tip: If using parchment paper, it can be helpful to draw 6, 5-inch circles, then flip it over to use as piping guides. Allow space between for the choux dough to expand.

In a medium size saucepan with a heavy bottom, add water, milk, butter, sugar and salt and combine over a medium-high heat until it starts to simmer.

Once simmering, remove the milk mixture from heat, and add the flour to the pot, stirring briskly and constantly. It will be lumpy at first then combine into a smooth, single mass that has pulled away from the edge of the pan. Put the pot back over the heat and cook the dough for 2 or 3 more minutes. You’re releasing moisture from the dough. Lots of recipes say to look for a film to form on the bottom of the pan to know it’s done.

Remove from heat, and place the dough in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat the dough on low speed to help it release some steam for about a minute or two before adding the eggs to prevent cooking the eggs when they’re added.

Turn the mixer to medium-high speed and add the eggs one at a time until they are fully incorporated. The dough may break apart when you add your eggs but it will come back together as you continue to mix.

Add the dough to a piping bag fitted with Ateco 867 French piping tip or French piping tip of equivalent size. Try to squeeze out any air bubbles. Pipe out six circles on the prepared baking sheet. If the dough is at all warm to the touch at this point, place the tray in the refrigerator, uncovered for around 20 minutes to cool it down and help prevent the pastry from cracking when baked.

Lightly sift powdered sugar over top (optional, but I like the sweetness it adds), and sprinkle a few of the chopped hazelnuts on top of each one.

Tip: If using parchment paper, pipe small dots of dough in each corner on the back of the paper. This will act as a glue to keep your parchment in place as you pipe.

Bake in the preheated oven for approximately 40 minutes until dark golden brown and crisp. Check after 30 minutes, but don’t open the oven before 30 minutes or the pastry may collapse. Immediately place on cooling rack and cut slits in the sides of the circles to release steam and let them cool completely. Make the slits where you will later slice them in half.

Choux should be a dark golden brown and crispy when you take them out of the oven.

Assemble: Slice the pastry in half and sift powdered sugar over the 6 tops. Add the diplomat cream to a pastry bag fitted with a half inch open star tip, or tip of equivalent size and shape. To achieve the look in the photo, pipe with a zig zag motion in the bottom of the ring, then fill in the gaps by piping arches over the zig zag. (Don’t stress about it, it doesn’t need to be totally perfect because you’re adding back the top when done.) Place the tops, then finish by pressing in a few candied hazelnuts around the edges of the pastry cream. Serve immediately.