Paris-Brest
A cake invented — by most accounts in 1910 — for the Paris–Brest–Paris cycle race and shaped like a wheel. Two things decide whether it works: the choux must dry out in the oven after it has risen, or it collapses a minute after coming out, and the filling must be a mousseline, not a custard — pastry cream whipped with butter, so it holds its shape and does not weep when the ring is cut.
Your own work in that: 0 min.
- Pastry cream 20 min
- Chilling the cream 90 min
- Choux paste 20 min
- Baking 55 min
- Mousseline cream 15 min
- Assembly 15 min
- Setting in the fridge 30 min
Step by step
0 / 8 doneMake the hazelnut praline
Toast the nuts (about 10 minutes at 170°C), rub off the skins, coat them in amber caramel made by melting the sugar dry, add the salt and cool on paper. Then blend for at least 5 minutes, until the shards turn into a smooth, pourable paste. Do not stop at the wet-sand stage — the nut oil only releases after several minutes. All of the praline goes into the cream later.
Ingredients: 150 g hazelnuts · 110 g sugar · 1 pinch salt
Keep blending — sand becomes paste.Cook the pastry cream
Whisk the yolks with sugar and cornflour, temper with hot milk, return to the pan and cook 2 minutes past thickening, whisking hard. Spread into a shallow dish, cover with film on the surface and cool to room temperature, about 1½ hours. If the cream has been in the fridge, take it out an hour before whipping.
Ingredients: 350 ml milk · 3 pcs egg yolks · 70 g sugar · 30 g cornflour · 180 g butter
Cook out the choux paste
Boil the water with milk, butter, sugar and salt, tip in all the flour at once and beat hard. Then dry the paste over the heat for 2 minutes, until a thin film forms on the base of the pan — a sign that excess water has evaporated and the paste will take more egg.
Ingredients: 130 ml water · 130 ml milk · 110 g butter · 150 g plain flour · 4 pcs eggs · 1 tsp sugar · ½ tsp salt · 40 g flaked almonds
Beat in the eggs one at a time
Transfer to a bowl, cool 5 minutes and add the eggs one at a time. Add the last one gradually and check: finished paste falls from the spatula in a slow V. Too loose and it will spread flat on the tray.
Ingredients: 130 ml water · 130 ml milk · 110 g butter · 150 g plain flour · 4 pcs eggs · 1 tsp sugar · ½ tsp salt · 40 g flaked almonds
A slow V from the spatula — add no more egg.Pipe a ring from three rings
Draw a 20 cm circle on the paper and pipe two rings side by side and a third along the join, on top. That structure gives height and stability. Brush with the leftover beaten egg (or a little milk) and scatter with flaked almonds.
Ingredients: 130 ml water · 130 ml milk · 110 g butter · 150 g plain flour · 4 pcs eggs · 1 tsp sugar · ½ tsp salt · 40 g flaked almonds
Two rings side by side and a third in the groove.Bake 45 minutes and dry it out
Bake 15 minutes at 200°C, then drop to 170°C for another 30 minutes. Finally, switch off the oven, wedge the door open and leave the ring another 10 minutes — 55 minutes in all. Choux taken straight from the heat collapses, because the steam inside condenses and pulls the walls down.
Ingredients: 130 ml water · 130 ml milk · 110 g butter · 150 g plain flour · 4 pcs eggs · 1 tsp sugar · ½ tsp salt · 40 g flaked almonds
Whip the mousseline
Beat the soft butter until fluffy, add the room-temperature pastry cream a spoonful at a time, and finally fold in the praline. Both must be at a similar temperature — cold cream beaten into soft butter splits easily.
Ingredients: 350 ml milk · 3 pcs egg yolks · 70 g sugar · 30 g cornflour · 180 g butter
Split, fill and chill
Cut the cooled ring horizontally, pipe the cream in tall rosettes onto the bottom half, replace the lid and dust with icing sugar. Chill for 30 minutes so the cream firms up — then it slices cleanly.
Ingredients: 350 ml milk · 3 pcs egg yolks · 70 g sugar · 30 g cornflour · 180 g butter
Tall rosettes, not a flat layer.
Before you start
A split cream is fixable
If the mixture splits, warm a third of it over steam for a few seconds and beat it back into the rest. It usually comes back smooth.
Shop-bought praline
Ready-made praline paste saves half an hour and is perfectly decent. Homemade has a clearer, less sweet nut flavour though — if this is your first attempt, make your own so you know what you are comparing to.
Bake the ring a day ahead
Keep the baked ring somewhere dry and uncovered, and refresh it for 5 minutes at 160°C before assembling. Once filled, keep it in the fridge and eat it the same day — after a few hours the choux softens from the cream.
