Paris Brest Recipe with Praline Mousseline Cream

Choux pastry

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F / 190°C.
2. Place the salt, water, sugar, butter, and vanilla extract (if using) in a saucepan and heat over medium heat, stirring occasionally. When the water just starts to boil well (butter should be melted at this point), remove the saucepan from the heat.
3. Immediately add the flour (in one go) and vigorously mix the flour in, so that it absorbs all of the water (use a wooden spoon or spatula to do this). When the flour has absorbed the water and it's forming a dough, return the pan to the stove (on medium heat).
4. Cook the dough for a few minutes over medium heat while you mix and knead the dough with the spatula in the pan until you get a dough that pulls away from the sides of the pan. If you use a stainless steel pot, the dough will form a film on the bottom of the pan. The dough should have a thick, mashed potato-like consistency.
5. Transfer the dough to a bowl and let it cool down slightly for a few minutes. You can also place the dough in a mixer bowl and mix it with a paddle attachment for about 1 - 2 minutes to cool it down (on low speed).
6. Whisk the eggs in a separate bowl.
7. With a hand-held mixer (or whisk), mix the dough while adding the eggs, a little at a time. You can also do this with a stand mixer, especially if you make a double batch of dough.
8. Mix the dough well after each addition of eggs.
9. Only add enough eggs to get a dough with a glossy sheen and a thick pipeable consistency that will hold its shape. You may not add all of the eggs, as I only usually need to add about 3.5 eggs for this amount of dough.
10. Once the dough is prepared, put it in an airtight container, and place a plastic wrap on top to cover the dough well. Otherwise the dough will form a skin on top which can interfere with how smoothly the dough will pipe. I prefer to place the dough in a piping bag without cutting the tip, and then twisting the bag close to keep the dough sealed until I need to use it.

Piping the pastry rings for Paris-Brest

1. Take a parchment paper that will fit on a half sheet baking tray, and draw three 5-inch circles on it using a pencil.
2. Either place this parchment paper upside down on the baking tray, OR place a second parchment paper on top of the first one. Make sure you can see the outlined circles, so that you can use them as a guide to pipe the choux pastry dough rings.
3. Place a piping tip with a small diameter, about 0.3 -0.4 inches (Ateco French tip - 863) in a piping bag with the tip snipped off.
4. Snip off the tip of the piping bag with the dough and place it inside the piping bag with the tip.
5. Pipe a circle of dough just along the outside of one drawn 5 inch circle, with the dough slightly overlapping at the end. Pipe a second ring of dough right next to the first piped circle, on the inside of it. Make sure that the two dough circles are lightly in contact with each other throughout their circumference. Be careful not to pull the dough as you pipe it, or to allow the dough to bunch up either. The dough should have an even thickness throughout as it’s piped out.
6. Wet your finger with cold water, and use your damp finger to seal the point of the piped circle where the dough starts and ends. Repeat the piping process with the two other drawn circles.
7. Next, swap the small tip for a larger tip with a larger diameter - about 0.5 - 0.6 (Ateco French tip 865 / 866).
8. Pipe the dough out through this tip, on top of the two circles of dough. Make sure it lies on top, in between the two piped circles on the bottom. Again, the dough should be evenly thick, and not be stretched out or bunched up.
9. Seal the end of the dough by gently tapping on the dough with a damp finger. Repeat with the other two dough circles.
10. OPTIONAL - Whisk 1 egg very well. Using a pastry brush, brush a light coating of the egg wash on the surface of the pastry ring.
11. OPTIONAL - Sprinkle pearl sugar on top. Or sliced almonds. Gently press them into the dough, so that they lightly stick to the dough. You can also leave the top of the ring plain without any toppings.
12. Transfer the baking tray into the oven and bake for a total time of 35 - 40 minutes. First bake for 20 minutes, and then rotate the tray to bake the pastry the rest of the way. In the last 5 minutes, quickly prick the circle pastries with a toothpick all around (about 5 or 6 pricks each). Then let them bake in the oven for the final 5 minutes.
13. The pastries are done baking when they have a dark caramel color on top (with an egg wash), or a dark golden color (without an egg wash).
14. Remove from the oven and prick the cases again and let them cool completely on a cooling rack, until ready to assemble.
15. Repeat with the remaining dough. Remaining dough can be stored in an airtight container, or a well-covered piping bag. Make sure that the dough isn't exposed to air to prevent a skin from forming on top.

Mousseline cream

Pastry cream

1. In a medium-sized saucepan, place the milk, and heat until it’s just about to simmer (or just simmering). The milk does not need to come to a boil.
2. While the milk is heating, in a separate bowl or jug, place the egg yolks, sugar, salt, vanilla, and cornstarch. Whisk very well until the egg yolks start to look a little pale in color and thick, and there are absolutely no lumps in the mixture. Scrape the sides and bottom with a spatula and whisk again to make sure there are no yolk lumps.
3. When the milk is hot, turn off the stove and remove the milk from the heat.
4. Temper the egg mixture by pouring the hot milk into the egg yolk mixture in a SLOW and THIN stream while constantly whisking the egg yolk mixture. This will ensure that the egg mixture gently warms up without turning into scrambled eggs. You'll only need to add about 1 - 1 ½ cups of the milk mixture to temper the eggs.
5. Once the egg mixture is tempered, add the tempered egg mix back into the pot with the rest of the milk, whisk to mix, and return it back to the stove.
6. Heat the custard base over medium heat (or medium-low if you're a beginner) while whisking very frequently. Make sure to use the whisk to scrape the sides, bottom and corners of the pot to ensure that the milk is not “setting” anywhere and forming scrambled eggs.
7. The custard will start to thicken. Keep whisking until the custard starts to come to a boil. To check if the custard is boiling, you will need to pause whisking for a few seconds at a time to check if there are any big bubbles breaking the surface.
8. When the first few bubbles start to break the surface, keep cooking the custard while constantly whisking very well for about another minute (up to 90 seconds).
9. When the custard has finished cooking, remove it from the heat and add about half of the butter (150 g / 10.5 - 11 tbsp).
10. Whisk the butter to melt it into the custard and mix it in.
11. Once all the butter is mixed into the custard, pass the custard through a sieve into a bowl or container to remove any lumps.
12. Place a plastic wrap over the surface of the custard, making sure that the plastic wrap is touching the whole surface of the custard to prevent a skin from forming on top.
13. Chill the custard for a few hours or overnight until cold. You can let it cool to room temperature and use it immediately as well.

Praline mousseline cream

Preparing the butter

1. If the pastry cream is chilled, allow the pastry cream to come to room temperature - around 70°F / 21°C.
2. Place the remaining softened butter in a mixing bowl (150 g / 10.5 - 11 tbsp).
3. With a paddle attachment in your stand mixer (or hand-held mixer), whisk the butter until it's creamy and has absolutely no lumps. Add the praline paste and mix it into the butter mixture.

Adding the pastry cream

1. Add the custard into the butter in spoonfuls while mixing the butter mixture, until all of the custard has been added. If the pastry cream is still cold, it will create lumps and won’t be as smooth, so make sure that the pastry cream is at room temperature before adding it into the butter.
2. Scrape down the sides of the bowl periodically while mixing to ensure that all the butter and custard are evenly mixed.
3. Mix until you have a smooth, creamy, pipeable mousseline cream.
4. If the mixture is too runny, or warms up too much, or it’s very warm in your kitchen – transfer the mousseline cream bowl into the fridge and let it cool down. Then re-whisk it to get a firmer, pipeable cream. Chilling the cream longer and re-whisking it well can give you a fluffier texture.
5. If the mousseline cream is too airy, like buttercream, you can make it more dense by taking a portion of the cream (about 1 - 1 ½ cups), and warm it in 10 second intervals in the microwave until it’s just starting to melt (but not completely). Add this back into the mousseline cream and mix it in using a spatula. This should deflate the cream slightly. Repeat if you want to further adjust the texture.
6. Use the mousseline cream immediately, or within 1 - 2 days for best results.

Assembling Paris Brest pastries filled with praline mousseline cream

1. Take each baked paris brest pastry and slice the upper ⅓ of the pastry using a serrated knife. Make sure to do this carefully, as you want the pastry to be cut evenly, and in one piece.
2. Carefully remove any dough webbings that might be present inside the bottom part of the choux pastry, and also the top part. Be careful not to tear the outer pastry case as you do this.
3. Place the praline mousseline cream in a pastry bag, with a large open star or closed star tip attached.
4. Pipe a thick line of filling on the bottom of the choux pastry ring case, so that the cavity is mostly filled.
5. Next, pipe the filling in patterns on top of the previous filling. You can either pipe swirls, or shells, or a rope border (as I've done in the pictures in this post) all along the bottom choux pastry ring.
6. The filling should be at least 1 inch tall from the surface of the pastry.
7. Place the sliced top part of the pastry on top of the piped filling. Gently press down so that the pastry sticks to the filling.
8. Refrigerate for about 1 hour, and then serve.
9. OPTIONAL - Dust with confectioner's sugar before serving.