year of choux 02: paris-brest
I truly thought this was going to be a massive baking fail
Hello, hello! Happy April, and happy Wednesday! Over the weekend, I made more progress toward my Year of Choux by making a Paris-Brest.
I’m sure majority of you are thinking to yourself, “What is a Paris-Brest??” It’s a wheel shaped pastry made out of choux dough, and was created wayyyy back in the year 1910 in France to commemorate the 1,200 km Paris-Brest-Paris bicycle race. This became a popular meal for riders of the race because it was so calorie dense it gave them the fuel they needed to finish the race. Yay for carbs, fat and sugar!
Traditionally, the pastry is filled with a praline (sweetened nut paste) flavored pastry cream and topped with flaked almonds, but I brought this to an event where I wanted to be mindful of allergies so I did a berries and cream version. Mine had a thin layer of raspberry jam, double vanilla pastry cream (vanilla bean seeds and Mexican vanilla extract), and fresh berries. It came out so good! Also, instead of making one big pastry, which is typical, I made 6 minis. They were super cute, and piping blobs in a ring made them turn out in a floral shape which felt very on theme with spring having just arrived.
Making this dish was also the first time I made a craquelin for my choux; a sweet cookie-like topping to go on top of the choux dough before it goes in the oven. The craquelin molds to the shape of the pastry as everything bakes. I’ve always been nervous about it, but it was genuinely one of the easiest things I have ever made. Came together in less than 10 minutes! It made a huge difference in the flavor of my finished product, too. Choux is typically a little bland, which is great because it lets the fillings you’re using shine, but I really enjoyed having this lift of sweetness and crunch this time around. I’ll be including craquelin much more often going forward!
I’ll be honest, though, I had little faith in this working out. When I put my sheet pan in the oven, I said a small prayer, and mentally prepared to bake some back-up chocolate chip cookies from my freezer. The dough should have been enough for 8 paris-brest’s, but I only got 6. On top of that, my 6th one was wonky at best. Also, I piped the rings for each one too big, and my craquelin topper was too small. I thought there was no way the craquelin would end up working out and would just melt to the middle of the ring.
Another thing, my pastry cream was wayyyyy too thick. You would’ve thought I made vanilla jello. I was borderline grossed out by it. Thankfully, I knew the easy fix would be to grab my immersion blender and heat up a little milk, add it in and blend until my desired consistency was reached. That crisis was averted.
After baking at 450 for 5 minutes, 425 for 10 minutes, and 375 for another 10 minutes, I had perfectly puffed and golden paris-brest ready to go! It felt like a small miracle. The wonky one did turn out wonky though, so that became my taste test / chef snack.
Finally, I assembled everything and happily headed out to my event. I guess, sometimes, you just have to trust the process, trust your instincts, and always keep backup cookie dough in your freezer.
Talk to you all next week!
