Hazelnut Paris-Brest Dessert Recipe

Paris-Brest is an indulgent French dessert made of choux pastry and traditional hazelnut filling to impress your guests! Its round shape has its own history and is so gorgeous that makes the cake really unique. Take a bite of this signature French treat!

I have been dealing with the choux pastry since my 12-13 years old when I tried to make profiteroles for the first time. One day, it was done a few attempts to make the choux pastry… it did not turn right, unfortunately. However, I was persistent, and I have finally got the right choux ONE. The challenge is in getting the right consistency of the choux dough at the moment of adding eggs, but believe me, you can make it! Once you master this kind of pastry, you might fall in love with choux desserts.

Paris-Brest is of French origin (of course, French:)). It is considered that it was created in 1910 by a French  pastry chef to celebrate the famous bicycle race from Paris to Brest. The cake has a circular shape that represents a wheel. Over years, it has become a famouse French dessert found in pastry chops all over France.

Paris-Brest by a great French chef Philippe Conticini is one of the tastiest Paris-Brest choux desserts. Almost each French chef has its own version of a round choux pastry, but even the Pastry king Christophe Michalak loves Mr. Conticini’s creation best of all. Some time ago I even read in a magazine that Mr. Michalak had spent a lot of time trying to get his own Paris-Brest as tasty as Mr. Conticini’s one. Yes, one day I will make another version of Paris-Brest cake and will share the recipe with you.

But today is the turn for the best of the best Paris-Brest. To tell the truth, it serves 8 portions, but my Paris-Brest has served three adults… It is so YUMMY and delicious!

Ingredients:

For cracker:

• 40 g butter, softened
• 50 g brown sugar
• 50 g flour
• 1 pinch of salt

For choux pastry:

• 125 g water
• 2 g salt
• 2 g caster sugar
• 60 g butter
• 80 g flour
• 125 g eggs

For praline mousseline cream:

• 1/4 L whole milk
• ½ vanilla bean
• 50 g caster sugar
• 2 egg yolks
• 10 g flour
• 10 g corn starch
• 150 g butter
• 75 g praline

For praline insert:

• 100 g praline
• 35 g heavy whipping cream

For decoration:

• Icing sugar

Instructions:

To make a cracker, mix the flour, brown sugar and salt in a bowl.

Then add the softened butter and knead with hands for a few minutes to obtain a smooth paste.

Spread the dough about 3-4 mm thick between 2 sheets of baking paper [I am using plastic sheets].

Cut out 8 disks 3 or 4 cm in diameter. Place them in the freezer.

To make a choux pastry, heat the oven to 355 degrees F.

Bring the water, salt, sugar and butter to a boil. Then add this hot mixture to the sifted flour at one time and mix well with a wooden spoon.

Bring back the preparation to the heat for 30 seconds to dry the dough (it will start sticking to the bottom of the pan).

Take the dough out of the heat and put in a bowl. Let it cool a few minutes. Beat the eggs in omelette.

Start adding the eggs gradually. The dough must be neither too thick nor too liquid, it must form a ribbon. The test for the right choux dough: the furrow of a line drawn with the finger in the dough must close.

Place the dough in a pastry bag * with a plane tip. Arrange 8 sprouts of 4 cm diameter on the baking sheet covered with baking paper [spread them out from each ether a little bit] They have to form a crown.

The ideal is to draw a pattern on the sheet of baking paper and then turn the sheet.

Take the cracker disks out of the freezer and place them on each pastry sprout.

Bake at 355 degrees F for 35 min-40 min without opening the oven. Remove from the oven and and let them cool down to the room temperature on a rack.

For praline mousseline cream, sift the flour and corn starch. In a bowl, combine the sugar and yolks…

and add the flour and corn starch.

In a large saucepan, bring the whole milk with the seeds and the vanilla pod to boil. Pour the hot milk into the yolk/flour mixture and continue mixing.

Pour this preparation back into the pan and bring on medium heat again. Whisk until the cream thickens. Pour the cream in a bowl and cover with a plastic film * making contact with the cream. Let it cool at the room temperature.

In a bowl of the stand mixer *, place the butter and whip it.

Add the praline…

and gradually add the smoothed pastry cream.

To make the praline insert, add the cold whipping cream to the praline in three times. Place the ready insert in a pastry bag * and refrigerate.

To assemble the Paris-Brest, cut the crown into the thickness. Place the praline cream in a pastry bag * and push it onto the base of each of the 8 cavities.

Then poach on the praline insert, then finish with a layer of praline mousseline cream again.

Cover with the cap of the crown…

and dust with icing sugar.

Tip:

• If you place the Paris-Brest in the fridge, take it out about 20 minutes before serving.

Enjoy!

The recipe is taken from http://cuisine.journaldesfemmes.fr and translated from French. It is re-written by me, but the authorship of the recipe belongs to Philippe Conticini. All posted pictures are mine.

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