Paris-Brest is a pastry made from a cream puff dough shaped like a bicycle tire and filled with a vanilla-flavored pastry cream and whipped cream. It serves many people and is a perfect dessert for the holidays.
Cream puff dough is extremely simple to make. Butter, water, a bit of sugar and salt are brought to a boil. Flour is dumped into the pot, stirred well to make a dough, and cooked for a minute or two to drive off excess moisture. Whole eggs and egg whites are beaten into the hot dough and voila! You’ve got cream puff dough, or pate a choux.
The filling has two components - a pastry cream and whipped cream. Pastry cream, made with whole milk, sugar, egg yolks, cornstarch and flavoring, can be used by itself as a filling for cream puffs, éclairs and cakes. Whipped cream folded into pastry cream makes a sublime filling with great body, perfect for Paris-Brest.
You can make the pastry cream two days ahead and refrigerate it, covered. Whip and fold in the heavy cream early in the day you plan to serve the dessert. Bake the pastry shell a few days ahead and freeze it after you’ve split it and removed any soft insides. Just wrap each cooled half shell tightly in plastic wrap. To thaw and recrisp, unwrap frozen shells, place each cut side up on a cookie sheet and heat 5 minutes in a preheated 425 degree oven. Cool and fill.
Paris-Brest
For the filling:
2 cups whole milk
4 large egg yolks
1/8 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
2 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into 6 pieces
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 cups heavy cream
1/4 cup powdered sugar, plus more for dusting
For the cream puff dough:
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
3/4 cup water
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup bread flour or unbleached all-purpose flour (measured by dipping a dry measuring cup into the flour, filling it to overflowing, and sweeping off the excess with a straight edge)
3 large eggs, at room temperature
2 large egg whites, at room temperature
1 egg yolk beaten with 1 teaspoon water
1/4 cup slivered almonds
For the filling, pour 1 1/2 cups of the milk into a heavy medium saucepan (2- to 3-quart size) and cook, uncovered, over medium heat until the milk is scalded - almost, but not quite, at the boil. Watch carefully. Set aside briefly.
Stir the egg yolks in a medium bowl with a whisk just to break them up, and gradually whisk in the sugar. Continue whisking briskly until the yolks thicken, 1 to 2 minutes. Whisk in the salt. Very gradually, whisk the hot milk into the egg yolks, whisking constantly.
In a small bowl, whisk the remaining 1/2 cup milk with the cornstarch until the cornstarch is dissolved. Slowly add this mixture to the milk and egg yolks.
Cook over medium heat, scraping the bottom constantly with a heatproof rubber spatula. While stirring, add the butter pieces one at a time. Keep cooking and stirring until the pastry cream thickens. This will happen on the bottom of the pan first, so keep everything moving. In about 8 minutes it should be the consistency of a heavy mayonnaise. If not absolutely smooth, whisk it gently to smooth it out. Vigorous beating may cause the pastry cream to thin out. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the vanilla. Press a piece of plastic wrap directly onto the surface of the pastry cream to prevent a skin from forming. Cool to room temperature and refrigerate overnight.
In a chilled bowl with chilled beaters, whip the cream with 1/4 cup powdered sugar until the cream holds a firm shape. Remove the plastic wrap from the pastry cream and add about 1/4 of the whipped cream. Whisk in gently until smooth. In 3 additions, fold in the remaining cream. Cover and refrigerate.
For the pastry ring, position an oven rack to the lower third position and preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Grease a large cookie sheet (14 by 17 inches) and dust it all over with flour; tap off excess flour. Set an 8-inch round cake pan on the center of the cookie sheet and trace around the pan with the tip of a paring knife.
Melt the butter in a heavy medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the water, sugar and salt, and bring to a rolling boil over high heat. Immediately remove the pan from the heat and dump in all the flour. Stir vigorously with a wooden spoon or spatula off the heat until the mixture gathers into a dough that pulls away from the sides of the pan. Return the pan to medium heat and cook, stirring constantly for about 2 minutes to cook the flour and drive off excess moisture; the dough should begin to film the bottom of the pan. Take the pan off the heat.
Scrape the hot dough into a large bowl and beat in the eggs one at a time, just until incorporated. You can do this by hand with a wooden spoon or with a hand-held electric mixer. Beat in the egg whites until the dough is very smooth, about 1 minute with a mixer.
Your next step is to shape the dough into a circular band measuring about 1 1/2 inches wide and 1 inch high. Place spoonfuls of the dough touching the outside edge of the outline you made, and smooth them together. Use the back of the spoon to smooth any uneven areas. With a pastry brush, gently paint the egg yolk and water mixture over the top only of the ring of dough. Sprinkle the almonds on top.
Put the pan in the oven and bake 20 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 350 degrees and bake 40 minutes more. The dough ring will rise enormously and it will be a deep golden brown. Don’t be concerned if the almonds seem too dark. They’re OK so long as your oven thermostat is accurate.
Remove the pastry from the oven and let it cool on its pan 5 minutes. Stick two toothpicks into the side of the ring, one above the line where you’ll cut and one below it. This is so you’ll be able to replace the top in the correct spot. Then, with a serrated knife, slice off the top third of the ring. If the inside of the ring contains moist dough, remove it with your fingers or a fork. Cool the shell completely.
To assemble the Paris-Brest, place the bottom half of the pastry ring on a large, flat dessert plate. Spoon the filling into the shell and spread it so that some of it will peek through the outer edge when the top goes on. Put on the pastry top and refrigerate. (May be made to this point 1 to 2 hours ahead).
Before serving, dust top of dessert generously with powdered sugar. Cut into portions carefully with a serrated knife to avoid crushing the pastry case. Serve with knives and forks.
• Makes 12 to 16 servings.
Greg Patent is a food writer and columnist for the Missoulian and missoula.com magazine. He also co-hosts a weekly show about food with Jon Jackson on KUFM Sundays at 11:50 a.m. His new cookbook, “Montana Cooking,” celebrates the foods of our state. Visit Greg’s Web site at www.gregpatent.com.
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