Best Paris Brest Custard Cake Recipes

PARIS-BREST RECIPE

Steps:

• mix the flour, brown sugar, and salt in a bowl. Add the softened butter and knead with hands for a few minutes to obtain a smooth paste. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough about 5/32 inches/4 mm thick between two parchment paper sheets. Freeze the dough. Take the dough from the freezer and let it stand for a few minutes at room temperature. Using a round cookie cutter, cut out 8 disks 1/5 inches/ 5 cm in diameter. Freeze again until ready to use.
• , preheat the oven to 355 F/180 C. Take a parchment sheet and, using a pencil, trace a pattern of a crown made of 8 circles of about 1/5 inches/4 to 5 cm in diameter. Turn the paper over and put it on a baking sheet. Place water, salt, sugar, and butter cut into pieces in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Remove from the heat and add the sifted flour all at one time and mix well with a wooden spoon. Bring back the preparation to the heat for about 1 to 2 minutes to dry the dough (it will start sticking to the bottom of the pan). Take the pâte à choux (choux pastry dough) out of the heat and put it in a bowl. Let it cool for a few minutes.
• Beat eggs for an omelet. Start adding the eggs gradually. The dough must be neither too thick nor too liquid, it must form a ribbon. The test for the right choux dough: the furrow of a line drawn with the finger in the dough must close.
• Place the choux pastry in a pastry bag fitted with Ateco plain pastry tip 809. Arrange 8 choux buns of about 1/5 inches/4 to 5 cm diameter on the baking sheet covered with the prepared parchment template. Take the craquelin disks out of the freezer and place them on each choux mound.
• Bake 35 min to 40 min without opening the oven. Remove from the oven and let cool on a wire rack.
• sift flour, and corn starch. In a separate bowl, combine sugar, egg yolks, add flour with corn starch, and mix with a hand whisk. In a large saucepan, bring milk with seeds of the vanilla bean to a boil. Pour hot milk into the yolk/flour mixture and continue mixing. Pour this preparation back into the pot and bring over medium heat again. Whisk until the cream thickens. Pour the ready pastry cream into a bowl and cover with plastic film making contact with the cream. Let it cool at room temperature.
• In a bowl of the stand mixer, place butter and whip it. Add the praline and mix it. Gradually add the smoothed pastry cream and whisk until homogenous.
• add cold whipping cream to the praline in three times and whisk with a hand mixer. Place the ready insert in a pastry bag fitted with any medium pastry tip and refrigerate.
• cut the crown in half horizontally with a serrated knife and gently invert the top onto parchment paper. Transfer the praline mousseline cream to a pastry bag fitted with an open star pastry tip and push it onto each of the 8 cavities' base. Poach on the praline insert, then finish with a layer of praline mousseline cream again. Cover with the cap of the crown and dust with icing (powdered) sugar.

PARIS-BREST

Steps:

• Male the pastry wreath: Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Trace a 9-inch circle onto a sheet of parchment. Flip parchment, making sure pencil mark is still visible, and place on a baking sheet.
• In a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, combine butter, sugar, salt, and 1 cup water. Bring to a boil and immediately remove from heat. Using a wooden spoon, quickly stir in the flour until combined.
• Return pan to medium-high heat and cook, stirring vigorously, until mixture pulls away from the sides and a film forms on the bottom of the pan, about 3 minutes.
• Remove from heat and transfer contents to a bowl to cool slightly, about 3 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, stirring vigorously after each addition, and waiting until each is entirely incorporated before adding the next egg. Use immediately.
• Transfer pate a choux dough to a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2-inch plain round tip. Pipe a tiny dot under each corner of parchment, pressing to adhere parchment to baking sheet. Then pipe dough, tracing outline, into sixteen 1 3/4-inch mounds, holding pastry bag upright and keeping pressure consistent.
• Whisk remaining egg with pinch salt. Brush egg over top of pastry wreath.
• Bake until pastry just starts to puff, about 10 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 375 degrees. Bake until pastry is fully puffed and golden brown, about 30 minutes.
• Turn oven off, remove wreath, and pierce top and sides about 8 times using the tip of a sharp knife to release steam. Return to oven, and prop door open with a wooden spoon. Let stand for 1 hour to dry.
• Transfer pastry wreath on parchment to a wire rack. Let cool completely.
• Fill and decorate the pastry wreath: Whisk heavy cream, confectioners' sugar, and vanilla until soft peaks form. Separate pastry wreath into top and bottom halves using a serrated knife.
• Spread about 1 1/2 cups pastry cream over bottom ring. Pipe whipped cream in a swirl using 1/2-inch closed star tip. Reposition top pieces of pastry wreath over filling. Dust with confectioners' sugar.