Paris-Brest 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 it makes the dessert really unique. Take a bite of this signature French treat!

Yes, you are right reading the name of the dessert Paris-Brest and not Paris-Breast. It has nothing to do with a woman’s anatomy. The name of the pastry comes from a bicycle race.

What is Paris-Brest dessert?

Paris-Brest is a signature French dessert made of choux pastry (pâte à choux in French), hazelnut mousseline cream and sprinkled with slivered almonds and icing sugar.

How to pronounce Paris-Brest?

If you wonder how to pronounce the name of the dessert, it is simply “pah-ree-breast.”

What does Paris-Brest mean?

It is considered that Paris-Brest was created in 1910 by a French pastry chef Louis Durand to celebrate the famous bicycle race Paris - Brest - Paris.

The Petit Journal editor-in-chief, Pierre Giffard, actually asked Mr. Durand from Pâtisserie Durand to create a dessert.

He wanted to promote a 745 miles/1,200 km race and develop sales in a Parisian newspaper.

As a result, the cake got a circular shape that represented a wheel. The square, rectangular, or S-shaped Paris-Brest also exists and has the authentic cake's taste and flavor, but not the shape.

Over the years, it has become a famous French dessert found in pastry shops all over France and is now made worldwide.

If you wonder where to taste the best Paris-Brest dessert, here is a list of 11 top pâtisseries in the world.

Paris-Brest recipe

The authentic Paris-Brest recette (aka recipe in English) is made with a choux pastry crown and a rich praline mousseline cream (crème mousseline in French) with the dominant nutty flavor.

The pâtisserie Durand is now operated by Stéphane, the inventor's great-grandson who maintains the precise recipe.

The secret recipe ingredient is praline, making a difference with all the other Paris-Brest versions.

The Durand family tried to file a patent in 1930, but the request was rejected due to the extensive distribution of the dessert.

Most Paris-Brest recipes make one large circle of the choux dough, but some use individual-sized mini circles or a circle made of piped cream puffs (the recipe below).

Paris-Brest variations

Over the years, chefs worldwide created their cake interpretations and modern takes on the classic recipe.

French chefs Pierre Hermé and Cyril Lignac, American chef Daniel Skurnick light up the cream, making crème légère.

Sébastien Bouillet adds hazelnut nougatine on top of the dessert, while Ludo Lefebvre sprinkles his Paris-Brest with chopped hazelnut nougatine.

Pastry chef Michelle Palazzo fills his dessert with pistachio buttercream, while another chef Julie Elkind uses caramel mousseline cream.

Gabriel Rucker, Le Pigeon's owner in the USA, created his unique strawberry-coconut version of the famous Paris-Brest.

He adds coconut flavor to the cream and sprinkles the dessert with freeze-dried strawberries.

And it is not the end of Paris-Brest variations. It continues. James Beard Award-winning chef Gabriel Rucker finally brought a roasted-peach version of Paris-Brest.

So, what flavor is next?!

International inspirations for Paris-Brest

Paris-Brest became the first dessert as a gourmet symbol of the cycling race between the two French cities.

American chef Thomas Keller went ahead and created his Paris-New York dessert where he flavored the cream with peanuts instead of hazelnuts.

Another Paris-New York pastry was created by Noémie Tessier, executive pastry chef of Angelina Paris, USA, who added pecan flavor to the classic mousseline cream.

Chef Eunji Lee, born in South Korea and trained in Paris, invented his New York-Seoul dessert while working in New York City, USA.

He topped his dessert with brown rice craquelin and filled it with hazelnut-pecan praline and brown-rice cream.

The Michelin-starred pastry chef Guillaume Godin created the Paris-Londres cake, a dessert in the shape of a bridge "to represent unity and as a nod to famous bridges in London and Paris."

But he went beyond the choux pastry in his creation and used pâte sucrée combined with mousse, apple tatin, and Chantilly cream.

French chef Eric Frechon, being inspired by a bicycle ride Paris-Deauville, created his pudding cake - Paris-Deauville. He kept the round shape from Paris-Brest but completely changed the recipe.

Why you should try this recipe

1. It is a French classic dessert that makes a gorgeous centerpiece of the table.
2. Choux pastry is quick to make: it takes 15 minutes to make pâte à choux (choux pastry in English); the baking time is not counted.
3. Hazelnut-flavored mousseline cream will please hazelnut lovers.

Ingredients

Here is a quick overview of what ingredients you will need. Follow the full recipe below for detailed amounts and instructions. I recommend making this recipe as written for the best results. 

Butter: use unsalted butter. To make the craquelin, and mousseline cream, take the butter out of the fridge 1-2 house before you start.

Sugar: you will need golden or dark brown sugar to make the craquelin and granulated white sugar for the rest of the dessert.

Flour: the recipe calls for all-purpose flour.

Salt: it enhances the flavor of the dessert.

Water: use cold water to make the choux pastry.

Eggs: use chilled eggs to separate egg yolks from the egg whites. Then bring egg yolks and whole eggs to room temperature.

Milk: use whole milk or low-fat milk if preferred.

Vanilla bean: the best to use is Madagascar vanilla beans.

Corn starch: it is used as a thickening agent while making pastry cream.

Praline: make it yourself or use store-bought hazelnut praline.

Whipping cream: it has to be at least 30% fat content.

Icing sugar: make it at home with a coffee grinder or use store-bought powdered sugar.

How to make Paris-Brest

To make craquelin, mix the flour, brown sugar, and salt in a bowl. Add the softened butter and knead with hands for a few minutes to obtain a smooth paste (photo 1).

Using a rolling pin, roll the dough about 5/32 inches/4 mm thick between two parchment paper sheets.

Make sure it fits 8 disks ⅕ inches/ 5 cm in diameter (photo 2). Freeze the dough.

Take the dough from the freezer and let it stand for a few minutes at room temperature.

Using a round cookie cutter, cut out 8 disks ⅕ inches/5 cm in diameter (photo 3). Freeze again until ready to use.

To make a choux pastry, preheat the oven to 355 F/180 C. Take a parchment sheet and, using a pencil, trace a pattern of a crown made of 8 circles of about ⅕ inches/4 to 5 cm in diameter.

Turn the paper over and put it on a baking sheet. Place water, salt, sugar, and butter cut into pieces in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil.

Remove from the heat and add the sifted flour all at one time and mix well with a wooden spoon.

Bring back the preparation to the heat for about 1 to 2 minutes to dry the dough: it will start sticking to the bottom of the pan (photo 4).

Take the pâte à choux (choux pastry in English) out of the heat and put it in a bowl. Let it cool for a few minutes.

Beat eggs for an omelet. Start adding the eggs gradually. The dough must be neither too thick nor too liquid, it must form a ribbon (photo 5).

The test for the right choux dough: the furrow of a line drawn with the finger in the dough must close.

Place the choux pastry in a pastry bag fitted with Ateco plain pastry tip 809.

Arrange 8 choux buns of about ⅕ inches/4 to 5 cm diameter on the baking sheet covered with the prepared parchment template (photo 6). 

Take the craquelin disks out of the freezer and place them on each choux mound (photo 7).

Bake 35 min to 40 min without opening the oven (photo 8). Remove from the oven and let cool on a wire rack.

To make praline mousseline cream, sift flour, and corn starch. In a separate bowl, combine sugar, egg yolks, add flour with corn starch, and mix with a hand whisk (photo 9).

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

Pour this preparation back into the pot and bring over medium heat again. Whisk until the cream thickens (photo 10).

Pour the ready pastry cream into a bowl and cover with plastic film making contact with the cream. Let it cool at room temperature.

In a bowl of the stand mixer, place butter and whip it. Add the praline and mix it (photo 11).

Gradually add the smoothed pastry cream and whisk until homogenous (photo 12).

To make the praline insert, add cold whipping cream to the praline in three times and whisk with a hand mixer (photo 13).

Place the ready insert in a pastry bag fitted with any medium pastry tip and refrigerate.

To assemble the Paris-Brest, cut the crown in half horizontally with a serrated knife (photo 14) and gently invert the top onto parchment paper.

Transfer the praline mousseline cream to a pastry bag fitted with an open star pastry tip and push it onto each of the 8 cavities' base.

Poach on the praline insert (photo 15), then finish with a layer of praline mousseline cream again. Cover with the cap of the crown and dust with icing (powdered) sugar (photo 16).

Expert tips

1. Add flour all at once to the water/butter mixture while making the choux pastry dough.
2. Add eggs gradually, beating the mixture with a hand whisk, a wooden spoon, or a stand mixer until the choux pastry is smooth.
3. Don't open the oven door while baking choux buns.
4. Cool the pastry cream at room temperature (please, don't refrigerate).
5. Take the dessert from the refrigerator 30 minutes before serving.

Frequently asked questions

Love choux pastry? Try these next!

• Chouquettes (French Sugar Puffs)
• Cream Puffs Dessert
• Gruyere Cheese Puffs (Gougères)
• Browse all the Choux Pastry Recipes

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Recipe

The nutritional information has been calculated using an online recipe nutrition calculator and is intended for informational purposes only and should be used as a general guideline. If the nutrition information is important to you, you should independently verify it using your preferred tool. Please, read the disclaimers in our Privacy Policy.

The recipe was adapted from cuisine.journaldesfemmes.fr. It was originally published on April 23, 2018. The recipe has been revised to include improved content and photos. All posted pictures are mine.