This week I fell in love with an idea after reading this post about the Paris Brest. I’ve never eaten one, let alone made one, but based on only a few basic details about it I set out to make one. There are three important things required to make this dessert; good choux pastry, a crème Paris-Brest, and to make that, a praline paste.
The pastry was easy enough to figure out; I followed exactly the recipe on this post by Azélia. I haven’t made choux pastry for some 13 years, but it was no problem with this as a guide.
Next was the praline paste. In fact again, I found an excellent step by step guide, here. For the actual construction of the crème Paris-Brest I battled with French food websites with their tedious flash based advertising wank to get a basic ratio but no method. In the end I followed a Swiss meringue buttercream kind of method to get a good result.
And so, for a reasonably authentic Paris Brest, You will need:
- 1 quantity of choux pastry, baked into rings as per Azélia’s post
- A large jar of praline paste as per Kates’s recipe (NOTE: spread this on hot toast and you will be in heaven).
- A quantity of pastry cream as per my post
- 150g softened butter
I love how linking to several different blogs makes this process seem quick, but it actually took my two days to have all of this ready. Anyway, at this point it’s basically assembly. Mix 300g pastry cream with 75g praline paste using an electric mixer or KitchenAid. Gradually add the butter, lumps at a time and keep whisking until light, fluffy and thick. Transfer to a piping bag and chill.
When ready to serve, slice the choux pastry rings in half, fill with the crème; replace the top and dust with icing sugar. Serve immediately.
Wow. I was going to make a raspberry meringue roulade for A’s birthday, but now I think I may have to make this. Or both, since this has four yolks and the other four whites!
Actually there are 7 yolks there. Hmm.
Yes the pastry cream has 7 yolks, but you can make a 4/7 quantity