Paris-Brest
Another Daring Bakers challenge, and I couldn’t be happier. This one was brought to us by Luisa from Rise of the Sourdough Preacher. I have always wanted to make this historic pastry. Paris Brest is a French dessert made up of pate choux (choux pastry), piped into a ring and baked. The ring is sliced horizontally and filled with praline whipped cream. I’ve eaten half of it. There. I said it.
Pate choux is a magical pastry. The choux batter is first made in a saucepan on the stove top, then spooned or piped onto a baking sheet. It is then baked in the oven where it puffs up into a golden brown, airy pastry that is nearly hollow inside. The best part is you can fill it with whatever you want… ice cream, whipped cream, cheese to name a few.
Grease and flour a baking sheet then draw a 8″ diameter circle.
In a saucepan, bring a cup of water and a stick of butter to a boil, stirring until butter has melted.
Mix in flour and salt, constantly stirring, until mixture pulls away from side of pan.
Let flour/butter mixture cool for 5 minutes, and then mix in the eggs one at a time.
As you mix in each egg, the mixture will separate into big pieces.
And then eventually coming back together.
Fill a large piping bag with the pate choux.
Begin to pipe over the circle on your baking sheet. Pipe out two rings (one tracing the circle and one on the inside), then pipe out a ring or two on top. Once it is fully piped, brush with egg wash, sprinkle with almonds, and sift a little powdered sugar.
Bake for about 50 minutes, or until puffed and golden.
Time to make the praline!
In a medium saucepan, heat almonds and sugar until sugar melts and becomes amber in color.
Like this!
Pour praline on a parchment-lined baking sheet and let cool.
Once cooled, pulverize it in a food processor.
Gently fold the pulverized praline into whipped cream that has been sweetened with hazelnut liqueur.
Seriously. Give me a spoon. Now.
Cut your Paris-Brest in half horizontally and pipe the praline whipped cream around the bottom layer.
Cut the top of the Paris-Brest into generous pieces.
And fit them back on top. This makes it easier to slice out each piece.
It is a grand dessert. A show stopper! And it isn’t too heavy.
Enjoy!
