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Paris-Brest With Praline Mousseline Cream

Paris-Brest dessert filled with praline mousseline cream and dusted with icing sugar.
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5 from 19 reviews

Paris-Brest is a classic French dessert made of choux pastry and a traditional hazelnut filling: praline mousseline cream. Its round shape has its own story and makes this signature French treat stand out. Take a bite!

Ingredients

Scale

For hazelnut praline (optional, or use store-bought):

  • 7 oz. (200 g) raw hazelnuts
  • ½ cup + 4 teaspoons (130 g) granulated sugar
  • 1 pinch of fleur de sel

For craquelin:

  • 1.4 oz. (40 g) unsalted butter, softened
  • 4 tablespoons (50 g) brown sugar
  • 1/3 cup + 1 tablespoon (50 g) all-purpose flour
  • 1 pinch of salt

For the choux pastry:

  • 1/2 cup + 1/2 tablespoon (125 g) water
  • 1 pinch of salt
  • 1 pinch of sugar
  • 2 oz. (60 g) unsalted butter
  • 2/3 cup (80 g) all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup (125 g) eggs (see note #1)

For praline mousseline cream:

  • 1 1/2 cups + 5 1/2 teaspoons (375 ml) whole milk
  • ½ vanilla bean
  • 1/3 cup (75 g) granulated sugar
  • 3 large egg yolks
  • 2 tablespoons (15 g) all-purpose flour
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons (15 g) corn starch
  • 8 oz. (225 g) unsalted butter, softened
  • 4 oz. (115 g) hazelnut praline

For praline insert:

  • 3.5 oz. (100 g) hazelnut praline
  • 2 1/2 tablespoons (35 g) whipping cream

For decoration:

  • 1 tablespoon icing (powdered) sugar

* If needed, please refer to Baking Conversion Charts.

Instructions

  1. To make craquelin, mix the flour, brown sugar, and salt in a bowl. Add the softened butter and knead by hand for a few minutes, until smooth. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough about 1/6 inch (4 mm) thick between two sheets of parchment paper. Freeze the dough. Take the dough from the freezer and let it stand at room temperature for a few minutes. Using a round cookie cutter, cut out 8 disks 1/5 inch (5 cm) in diameter. Freeze again until ready to use.
  2. To make a choux pastry, preheat the oven to 355°F (180°C). Take a parchment sheet and, using a pencil, trace a crown pattern made of 8 circles of about 1/5 inch (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, add the sifted flour all at once, and mix well with a wooden spoon. Bring the dough back to room temperature for about 1 to 2 minutes to dry the dough (it will start sticking to the bottom of the pan). Remove the choux pastry dough from the heat and place it in a bowl. Let it cool for a few minutes.
  3. Beat eggs for an omelet in a small bowl. 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 made by a finger-drawn line in the dough must close.
  4. Place the choux pastry in a pastry bag fitted with Ateco plain pastry tip 809. Arrange 8 choux buns about 1/5 inch (4 to 5 cm) in diameter on the baking sheet lined with the prepared parchment template. Take the craquelin disks from the freezer and place them on each choux mound.
  5. Bake the round pastry for 35-40 min without opening the oven. Remove from the oven and let cool on a wire rack.
  6. To make hazelnut praline paste (optional), roast raw hazelnuts at 300°F (150°C) for 15 minutes and rub off the skins. Melt granulated sugar in a heavy pan over medium heat, adding it in thirds and swirling until golden, then stir in a pinch of fleur de sel. Pour the caramel over the hazelnuts, cool for 20 minutes, break into pieces, and blend in a food processor until smooth. Or use store-bought hazelnut praline.
  7. To make praline mousseline cream, sift flour and cornstarch. In a separate bowl, whisk together the sugar and egg yolks, then add the flour and cornstarch and whisk until smooth. In a large saucepan, bring the milk with the vanilla bean seeds to a boil. Pour hot milk into the yolk/flour mixture and continue mixing. Pour this preparation back into the pot and bring it to a boil over medium heat again. Whisk constantly until the cream thickens. Pour the pastry cream into a bowl and cover with plastic film, pressing it onto the cream (in contact). Let it cool at room temperature.
  8. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter. Add the praline and mix it. Gradually add the smoothed pastry cream and whisk until homogeneous.
  9. To make the praline insert (whipped cream), add cold whipping cream to the praline in three batches and whisk with a hand or stand mixer. Place the ready insert in a pastry bag fitted with a medium pastry tip, then refrigerate.
  10. To assemble the Paris-Brest, cut the crown in half horizontally with a serrated knife and gently invert the top onto parchment paper. Transfer the praline mousseline cream to a pastry bag fitted with an open star tip and pipe it into each of the 8 cavities. Poach on the praline insert, then finish with a second layer of praline mousseline cream. Cover with the crown cap and dust with icing (powdered) sugar. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Notes

  1. 125 g whole eggs approximately equal to 2.50 whole large chicken eggs (eggshell removed).
  2. Add flour all at once to the water-butter mixture while making the choux pastry dough.
  3. Add eggs gradually, beating the mixture with a hand whisk, a wooden spoon, or a stand mixer until smooth.
  4. Don't open the oven door while baking choux buns.
  5. Cool the pastry cream at room temperature (please, don't refrigerate).
  6. Take the dessert from the refrigerator 30 minutes before serving.
  7. Make-ahead option: You can prepare praline paste a few days in advance, also craquelin, and keep it in the freezer. For mousseline cream, you make it the day before and refrigerate it. Take it from the fridge and let it reach room temperature for about 1 hour before assembling the dessert. Whip it and pipe.

Nutrition

Find it online: https://www.bakinglikeachef.com/paris-brest-by-philippe-conticini/