The Paris Brest is a French dessert made with choux pastry, famous for its ring shape and its creamy, indulgent filling. In this version we prepare it with whipped cream and strawberries, a fresh and delicate pairing perfect for spring and summer.
This dessert was born in Paris and has become over the years one of the most beloved items of French pastry, easy to customize with different creams such as pastry cream, chocolate cream or Chantilly.
The Paris-Brest is a traditional dessert of French pâtisserie made of a ring of choux pastry (the same dough used for cream puffs) that encloses a soft cream generally made with praline cream with hazelnuts or almonds.
This dessert was created in Paris by the creativity and skill of pastry chef Louis Durand of Maison-Laffitte, who made it following a request from one of the most famous sports journalists, to commemorate the Paris-Brest-Paris cycling race; its shape, in the original version, indeed resembles a bicycle wheel.
The Paris-Brest spread throughout France and you can enjoy it in all the most famous French pastry shops either in the original version or in single-portion gourmet versions.
HOW TO CHANGE THE FILLING OF THE PARIS-BREST? You can prepare:
• Chantilly cream made from whipped cream combined with pastry cream;
• dark or milk chocolate ganache according to personal taste;
• pistachio cream;
• coffee cream;
• mascarpone cream with vanilla bean.
Today we go to France with a delicious dessert that we can vary in many ways for the filling, the Paris-Brest with whipped cream and fruit!
I opened a recipes channel open to everyone and free on WhatsApp — no notifications and no sound — which you can subscribe to by clicking the link here https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaHbGIn9cDDig7Cw2x0F and every day you can read one sweet and one savory recipe!
On the theme CHOU PASTRY DESSERTS I also suggest other recipes just below:
- Difficulty: Medium
- Cost: Budget-friendly
- Rest time: 1 Hour
- Preparation time: 20 Minutes
- Cooking time: 45 Minutes
- Portions: 8
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: French
- Seasonality: All seasons
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 3 eggs (medium)
- 4 tbsp butter
- 3.4 fl oz water
- as needed whipped cream
- as needed strawberries
- as needed raspberries
- as needed sugar granules
Tools
- Baking sheets
- Parchment paper
- Stand mixers
- Piping bags
- Pans
FOR THE PREPARATION OF THE PARIS BREST WITH WHIPPED CREAM AND STRAWBERRIES
In a small saucepan I put the water with a pinch of salt and the butter.
As soon as the liquid simmers I add the flour all at once and stir vigorously to incorporate it for a couple of minutes.
I transfer the dough to a bowl and continue stirring to bring down the temperature; you can also do this in the bowl of the stand mixer…
Now that it has cooled I add the eggs, adding the next only when the previous one has been absorbed…
Then I put the dough into a piping bag fitted with a star tip and trace on a sheet of parchment paper a circle about 8 in (20 cm) and then a second circle next to the first.
Then I sprinkle my Paris Brest with sugar granules but you can also vary with sliced almonds … as you like!
I bake for about 15 minutes at 392°F then I lower the temperature to 347°F and continue baking for another 30–35 minutes.When baking is complete I remove the Paris Brest from the oven, let it cool, then cut it horizontally and fill it with fresh whipped cream and strawberries or other fruit as you prefer!
Enjoy!
Annalisa
Annalisa says…
Maybe I should have filled my Paris-Brest with the classic pastry cream but I love whipped cream and berries and I overdid it! As always the choice is yours and feel free to use coffee cream, chocolate cream, almond cream, lots of whipped cream and fresh seasonal fruit …
I added only sugar granules before baking but if you prefer you can also use sliced almonds or crushed pistachios or hazelnuts.
I preferred not to brush the 3 concentric rings of choux pastry with egg yolk before adding the sugar granules, but if you want them to stick well you can do so!
