Paris Brest (French)

Besides the Tour de France, every four years France holds a 1200 kilometer bicycle race that goes from Paris to Brest and back to Paris (commonly known as "PBP"). This race first took place in 1891 and it is the oldest cycling event still being run. The same year that the race began, a pastry chef along the bicycle route decided to make a celebration cake called Paris-Brest, to honour the race. It consisted of a circle of choux pastry, filled with whipped cream, that was meant to resemble a bicycle wheel.

Choux Pastry:
milk (70 g)
water (70 g)
1 pinch kosher salt
unsalted butter (60 g)
bread flour (90 g)
3 eggs (150 g)

Pastry Cream:
1 cup milk (250 g)
½ vanilla bean
granulated sugar (40 g)
3 egg yolks
cornstarch (18 g)
unsalted butter, cold (90 g)

Praliné Mousseline Cream:
praliné paste (60 g)
unsalted butter, diced, room temperature (90 g)

Decoration:
confectioners’ sugar
sliced almonds

Choux Pastry:
Bring the milk, water, salt and butter to a boil in a saucepan. Make the sure the butter is fully melted before reaching the boiling point.

Remove from the heat and immediately add all the flour.

Stir with a spatula or wooden spoon then put the pan back on the heat and continue beating the dough

Keep drying the dough up on the heat only for a few minutes until it comes away from the sides of the pan and leaves a thin film on the bottom of the saucepan

Transfer the dough to a clean bowl and let it cool down for a few minutes

Add an egg and stir until it is completely absorbed in the dough

Add all the other eggs one at a time. Slightly beat the last egg before adding it then pour it slowly little by little on the batter, checking frequently if it has reached the right consistency.

When the batter is shiny but firm (i.e. not runny), it is ready to be used with a piping bag.

Draw two 18 cm circles on parchment paper.

Flip the parchment paper sheet (so that the ink is not in contact with the choux pastry). Using a pastry bag fitted with a large star (or plain) tip, pipe a first ring following the circle you've drawn.

Pipe a second inner ring. Make sure the joint is in a different place from the outer circle.

Finally, pipe a third ring on top of the other two. Once again, make sure the joint is far from that of the bottom rings.

On the other side of the pan, pipe another ring of choux pastry.

Brush the rings lightly with egg wash.

Sprinkle the bigger ring with sliced almonds.

Bake at 170°F for about 45-50 minutes or until the choux pastry rings are golden brown and well dried.

Pastry Cream:
Heat the milk with half of the sugar and the vanilla bean in a saucepan.

In a bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, sugar and corn starch.

When the milk is boiling, pour it in three times over the egg mixture through a strainer and mix every time to prevent the yolks from curdling.

Put back the liquid mixture into the saucepan and cook on medium heat whisking continuously.

Allow the pastry cream to boil for 2 minutes then remove from the heat, add the cold, diced butter and whisk again until it is fully incorporated.

Pour the cream in a large container, cover with plastic wrap and store in the fridge.

Praliné Mousseline Cream:
When the cream is at around 25°C, whip it at medium speed in the bowl of a mixer with the praliné paste

Incorporated the soft, diced butter little by little and keep on whipping for around 5 minutes until the cream is soft and airy

Assembling the Paris-Brest:
When the choux pastry ring has cooled down, slice the bigger ring of choux pastry in half horizontally with a serrated knife (the tip of the knife should be at all times in the ring hole; do not try to slice the ring like a cake).

Place the smaller ring inside the bottom half of the bigger ring.

Pipe the mousseline cream on the bottom half of the baked ring in a connecting chain of rosettes (converging towards the inner hole) using a medium star tip and pastry bag.

If you feel your Paris-Brest is not tall enough, you can add another yummy layer of cream on top of the previous one.

Replace the top half.

Dust with confectioners’ sugar.

Cook's Notes:
Try adding some chunks of caramelized hazelnuts into the cream after piping.

If the cream is too soft to be piped you can refrigerate it for a few minutes, but be careful, because its big quantity of butter will make it solid quickly and impossible to pipe.

The cream can be stored up to 3 days into the fridge, but if you want to pipe it, you will have to whip it again to incorporate air and make it lighter.