Paris-Brest
Serves 8-10
Paris-Brest is a showstopper dessert that consists of a large ring of pâte à choux—the same pastry used to make éclairs and cream puffs—that is filled with hazelnut praline pastry cream and then sprinkled with chopped almonds and powdered sugar. To make this elegant dessert foolproof, we started with our pâteà choux recipe, which created a tender, but strong“case” for the cream filling. For a light cream filling that was firm and sturdy, we started with a flour-thickened pastry cream (which was more stable than the normal cornstarch-thickened version), added pulverized caramel-coated hazelnuts, and then folded in whipped cream that had been enriched with gelatin. INGREDIENTS
Praline
½ cup (3 1/2 ounces) sugar
¼ cup water
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 cup hazelnuts, toasted and skinned
½ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
Pastry Dough
3 large eggs
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 12 pieces
⅓ cup whole milk
⅓ cup water
2 teaspoons sugar
½ teaspoon salt
¾ cup (3 3/4 ounces) all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons toasted, skinned, and chopped hazelnuts
Cream Filling
2 teaspoons unflavored gelatin
¼ cup water
1½ cups half-and-half
5 large egg yolks
⅓ cup (2 1/3 ounces) sugar
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 3 pieces and chilled
1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup heavy cream, chilled
confectioners’ sugar
INSTRUCTIONS
1. For the praline: Line rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper; spray parchment with vegetable oil spray and set aside.