Paris-Brest Recipe

Step 1

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. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough about 5/32 inches/4 mm thick between two parchment paper sheets. 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 1/5 inches/ 5 cm in diameter. Freeze again until ready to use.

Step 2

, 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 1/5 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). Take the pâte à choux (choux pastry dough) out of the heat and put it in a bowl. Let it cool for a few minutes.

Step 3

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

Step 4

Place the choux pastry in a pastry bag fitted with Ateco plain pastry tip Arrange 8 choux buns of about 1/5 inches/4 to 5 cm diameter on the baking sheet covered with the prepared parchment template. Take the craquelin disks out of the freezer and place them on each choux mound.

Step 5

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

Step 6

sift flour, and corn starch. In a separate bowl, combine sugar, egg yolks, add flour with corn starch, and mix with a hand whisk. 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. Pour the ready pastry cream into a bowl and cover with plastic film making contact with the cream. Let it cool at room temperature.

Step 7

In a bowl of the stand mixer, place butter and whip it. Add the praline and mix it. Gradually add the smoothed pastry cream and whisk until homogenous.

Step 8

add cold whipping cream to the praline in three times and whisk with a hand mixer. Place the ready insert in a pastry bag fitted with any medium pastry tip and refrigerate.

Step 9

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 pastry tip and push it onto each of the 8 cavities' base. 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 (powdered) sugar.