With this foolproof, step by step recipe and guide, you too can master this classic French dessert with ease. I’ll show you how to get those perfectly-shaped choux pastry rings filled with a rich, praline-flavored creamy filling.
Why you will love this recipe
Paris Brest may seem like something only pastry chefs would attempt to do, but I break it down step by step in this recipe so that it’s super easy to follow. I provide the best choux pastry troubleshooting guide on the internet on this web site. Many have had great first time success with my choux pastry guide, which will help you make this Paris Brest recipe with ease too. I explain how to make the rich mousseline cream, with different flavor variations. In this post, I explain why Paris Brest pastries fail, common mistakes, and share plenty of expert tips on how to perfect them.
What is Paris Brest?
Paris Brest is a French dessert made with choux pastry and a praline mousseline filling. The pastry was first created in 1910 to commemorate the Paris-Brest-Paris long-distance bicycle race which began in 1891. The idea was for it to resemble a bicycle wheel, hence the circular shape of the dessert. And as you may have guessed, it’s named after the French cities of Paris and Brest. This dessert is not for the faint of heart, because it’s a rich, buttery, and sweet pastry that has creamy, caramel, nutty flavors. It’s so delicious and a wonderful treat worthy of any special occasion!
Components of a classic Paris Brest
A classic Paris-Brest is a pastry made with choux pastry and filled with a praline mousseline cream. To make this dessert, you need 3 components. Here’s how to make each of these components.
Ingredients to make Paris Brest with Praline Crème Mousseline
Choux pastry ingredients
Water or milk This is the base for choux pastry dough. Milk makes the pastry softer, while water allows the choux to be a little more firm. Milk also adds a little extra flavor, but I prefer to use water. Milk or water evaporation is what makes the choux pastry rise. Butter Butter is the main ingredient that adds flavor to the dough, but also helps to soften the dough. You can use vegan butter or oil as a substitute to butter. Flour I use all purpose flour in this recipe. You can also use bread flour, which will result in a thicker, sturdier shell. Eggs Another crucial ingredient, and unfortunately there is no substitute for this. Eggs add structure to the choux pastry (along with the gluten in the flour), and also helps with the rising of choux pastry. However, too much egg will make the choux pastry flat. Salt and sugar Salt and sugar add flavor to the dough. Without salt, the choux pastry will taste absolutely bland.
Praline ingredients
You can either make my homemade praline paste, or use store-bought praline paste. Hazelnut or almonds (or a mix of both) You can decide what type of praline you’d like to make or buy. The most popular type of praline is hazelnut praline, but almond praline is more widely available. When possible, I prefer to make praline with a mix of hazelnut and praline. Sugar Praline is paste made with nuts and caramelized sugar. So sugar is essential for making praline. Use regular granulated white sugar. Salt Salt helps to balance the sweetness. This praline paste isn’t salty at all. Just a pinch to balance the sweetness will make this praline cream taste even better.
Praline mousseline cream ingredients
Pastry cream To make mousseline cream, you first need to make a thick custard, or pastry cream / crème pâtissière (you can check my post to read all about the different types of custard). To make pastry cream, you will need,
Milk Sugar Cornstarch Egg yolks Vanilla Salt
Apart from the custard, you will also need, Butter I use unsalted butter for this recipe so that I can control the amount of added salt. But you can use salted butter too. Just make sure to adjust the amount of salt added in the custard. Praline paste You can make your own praline paste, but you can also buy praline paste from specialty stores. Making your own isn’t difficult at all, but it does require a good food processor or blender. Cacao Barry hazelnut praline paste is a fantastic brand that you can use for this purpose. You can also use chocolate hazelnut paste like Nutella, but the flavor will be fairly mild in mousseline cream.
How to make classic Paris Brest – step by step instructions
How to make choux pastry dough
Check out my detailed post on how to make choux pastry on the blog. This post includes a step by step explanation of,
How to make choux pastry dough perfectly. What to look for in the dough to make sure you’re on the right path. Common pitfalls and mistakes when making choux pastry, and why that happens. How to troubleshoot and fix choux pastry.
Here are some of the important steps! First, combine the butter, sugar, salt, and water in a saucepan. Melt the butter, sugar, and salt in the water while heating the saucepan over medium high heat. Bring the water to a boil. Remove the pot from the heat. Add the flour to the boiling water and stir quickly to allow the flour to absorb the water mixture. Use a wooden spoon or spatula to do this. Return the saucepan back to low heat, and constantly mix for a few minutes to let some of the water evaporate, until the dough has a mashed potato-like consistency. If you use a stainless steel pot, you will see a film of dough at the bottom of the pot too. Allow the dough to cool down before adding the eggs. You can keep the dough in the saucepan, or a separate bowl, but make sure the dough is covered to prevent a skin from forming on top. Beat the eggs in the bowl before adding them to the dough. This is because the amount of eggs that will be added can vary, and you may not need the full amount of eggs noted in the recipe. Add the eggs, a little at a time, mixing it in each time before adding more eggs. Add only enough eggs to form a dough that has become a little shiny, and is still thick and pipeable. When you lift your spatula from the dough, the dough should form a “V” shape off the end of the spatula (as pictured below). If you add too much egg, then the Paris Brest will not properly rise in the oven, and will collapse or flatten. Add too little, and the choux pastry will be too dense and will not puff up as it bakes. If you’re having trouble with your choux pastry, please follow my troubleshooting guide for choux pastry.
Piping the Paris-Brest shells
Do you find that your Paris-Brest pastry isn’t puffing up as it bakes? Is it collapsing after your bake it? Or maybe your Paris-Brest pastry is not properly formed and doesn’t have the proper shape as you bake it? Well, now you don’t have to worry! Here I share ALL the secrets to making perfect Paris-Brest pastries! They’ll be beautifully puffed up, with perfect hollow centers, and won’t collapse or be misshapen either! Traditionally, Paris-Brest is made by piping 3 dough rings – 2 dough rings at the bottom, and 1 on top. To pipe the choux pastry to make this Paris-Brest recipe, you will need to use two piping tips for best results. You can use round tips or French star tips, and I prefer French star tips. I use Ateco 863 tip and Ateco 865 or Ateco 866 tip. Draw 5 inch circles on a parchment paper that will fit a half sheet baking tray (see pictures below). There should be enough room for 3 circles. You can either turn this parchment paper upside down, so you can see the marks through the parchment paper sheet, OR place a second parchment paper sheet on top. With both methods you should be able to see the outline of the circles that you drew. The bottom two dough rings must be piped with a smaller diameter piping tip. The top ring must be piped with a larger diameter piping tip. Much like classic eclairs, the French star tip gives the best results because of the serrated edge creating a pattern on the choux dough for more even expansion. But a plain round tip can also work. The piping tip with a small diameter – around 0.35 – 0.4 in (9 – 10 mm). Piping tips with a larger diameter – around 0.5 – 0.6 in (13 – 15 mm). Fill a pastry bag with the choux pastry dough, and snip off the tip. Take another pastry bag and place the Ateco 863 tip in it. Place the pastry bag with the choux pastry dough inside the pastry bag with the piping tip. Squeeze the piping bag to allow the dough to come out in a smooth, even thickness, over the parchment paper with the outlined circle. Allow the dough to gently pipe down onto the paper, just outside of the outlined circle. Be careful not to pull away the tip too fast to stretch the dough, or to move too slow and allow the dough to bunch up. Next, pipe the dough again right alongside the piped circle of dough, but this time on the inside. Make sure the dough is piped very close together and the two rings are in contact with each other. Now you should have two choux pastry dough circles piped right next to each other. Repeat with the other two circles on the parchment paper as well. Next, take off the outer piping bag with the piping tip. Remove the 863 piping tip and replace with the larger piping tip. Place the choux pastry dough bag inside the piping bag again. Now pipe one circle of dough on top of the two circles that you piped earlier. Make sure that you pipe the dough the same way, with even pressure, so that the dough will be an even thickness throughout – i.e. not be too stretched or bunched up. This final circle of dough should be placed on top, in between the first two circles. Dip your finger in cold water and use your dampened finger to gently press down the dough seams so that they flatten and seal. Repeat with the other two dough rings.
Baking the Paris-Brest pastries
Just like my profiteroles and choux pastry recipe guide, I bake these Paris-Brest pastries at the same oven temperature throughout. So you don’t need to increase and then decrease the temperature between separate batches that are being baked. I promise you, that you will get consistently perfect results this way, because I’ve been making choux pastry since I was 10 years old, literally many thousands of times now, and have perfected my method. Preheat your conventional oven to 375 F / 190 C. Make sure the oven is preheated at this temperature for at least 15 minutes (longer if you have an older oven). Place your baking rack in the middle of the oven, or where ever you get even heat from both the bottom and top elements in the oven. ONLY bake one tray at a time to ensure that your choux pastry bakes evenly from the top and bottom. If you do have a commercial convection oven, then it’s possible to bake multiple trays, but most home ovens will only be able to handle 1 tray at a time for perfect results. This is an optional step, but you could use a pastry brush and brush each of the pastries with an egg wash on top. This will create a shiny, dark, golden brown crust on the choux pastry (as the pictures in this post show), which I personally prefer. However, if you want your Paris-Brest to have a lighter color (than pictured in this post), then you can skip the egg wash. Toppings on your Paris-Brest are completely optional, and you can bake these with no topping at all. But here are some options for topping the Paris-Brest pastries.
Traditionally, the top is sprinkled with sliced almonds. If using nuts, I prefer to use almonds that are not very thinly sliced, otherwise these nuts may burn in the oven. My personal preference is to sprinkle the tops with pearl sugar! These will provide a crunchy sweetness that is much better than nuts, and do not burn either. Another option is to top the dough with craquelin. This will give the Paris-Brest a more elevated, fancy look. But I only recommend this option if you’re more experienced with making choux pastry and craquelin.
Once ready, put the baking tray in the preheated oven and bake for a total of 35 – 40 minutes. Rotate the pan at the 20 minute mark – if your oven requires this. And then 5 minutes before the pastries are done, quickly open the oven door and prick the pastry ring with a tooth pick all around, and return to the oven for the last few minutes of baking. This will allow any excess steam to escape from the pastry, and allows the inside to slightly dry out as well. This will ensure that your Paris Brest does not collapse! Once baked, remove from the oven and prick the pastries again. And let them cool on a wire rack, until you’re ready to fill the pastries.
How to make praline
Traditionally, praline paste is made by caramelizing sugar and then mixing nuts with the sugar until it crystalizes and coats the nuts. Once the nuts are coated with caramelized sugar, they are are blended until a smooth paste is formed. However, I make this process easier for beginners! Rather than having to mix the nuts in caramel, I break the recipe into two parts. I make the caramel separately, and then roast the nuts separately. The caramel is made using the dry caramel method. This is when the sugar is placed in a dry skillet and heated with no added liquid. The sugar granules melt and then turn into caramel. This is my preferred method, but it does happen fairly quickly. The caramel is then poured onto a heat-safe surface, lined with parchment paper, and allowed to harden. The nuts are also placed on a baking tray and roasted in an oven until lightly toasted. Finally, I place both components in a food processor and blend until I have a smooth praline paste! The detailed steps for how to make the praline paste, and the different stages in making praline paste can be found in my post – easy praline paste recipe. You can choose to either make hazelnut praline paste or almond praline paste. You can also use a combination of both.
How to make mousseline cream
The traditional filling for Paris-Brest is a praline crème mousseline. Mousseline cream is a type of filling that is made with pastry cream. Thickened pastry cream is whipped with butter to create a rich, creamy, light, and melt in your mouth, delicious filling! It’s very similar to German buttercream, but a little more dense and creamy. This is because mousseline cream has less butter and less air is whipped into the butter as well. I have an entire post that I dedicated to all the types of custard based creams, and another recipe on how to make classic mousseline cream with or without praline, that you can peruse for this paris brest recipe.
Making pastry cream
The first step for making mousseline cream is to make the pastry cream. With my comprehensive recipe for making the best pastry cream, you’ll be guaranteed perfect results, every time! The first step is to heat the milk in a saucepan until it starts to steam. In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, sugar, salt, cornstarch, and vanilla until you have a thick, smooth, pale-colored paste. When the milk is heated, remove it from the heat. This hot egg mixture will be used to temper the eggs (i.e. to slowly increase the temperature of the egg mixture), to prevent the eggs from cooking and curdling. Carefully add about 1/2 of the hot milk into the egg mixture, in small amounts, while constantly whisking the egg mixture. Once the egg mixture is very warm, pour this back into the saucepan with the remaining hot milk and whisk well to combine. Return this to the stove and cook over medium heat while constantly whisking. The custard mixture will start to thicken pretty quickly, so make sure to whisk it well to prevent the eggs from curdling. If the custard is thickening too fast and creating lumps, remove the pot from the heat to whisk well, and lower the heat, and start cooking again. When the custard starts to boil (large bubbles break the surface), cook the pastry cream for a further 1 – 2 minutes while whisking. The custard is now cooked! Add half of the butter and whisk to melt and incorporate. Pass the mixture through a sieve and place it in an airtight container. Make sure to place a plastic wrap over the surface of the custard. Let it cool to room temperature and then store overnight in the fridge.
Making praline mousseline cream
Allow the pastry cream to warm up to room temperature so that it’ll mix in more smoothly. You can also place the custard in a bowl and whisk it very well until it’s smooth. In the bowl of a stand mixer, place the softened butter and praline. Mix until well combined. Whisk for a few minutes until the butter becomes creamy. Then add the custard, a tablespoon at a time, while still mixing the butter praline mix. Make sure the custard mixes in well, without any lumps. The mousseline cream should be more creamy than airy. Make sure not to whip it for too long, otherwise the cream will have more of a buttercream texture. For a more detailed and informative post, check my classic mousseline recipe.
How to assemble Paris Brest
Now that we have all the components of Paris-Brest ready, we can assemble it. First step – Prepare the pastry Once your choux pastry is baked and cooled, slice the top off of the pastry. We will only be slicing the upper 1/3 of the pastry. Use a serrated knife and cut the upper part of the pastry as smoothly and evenly as possible, in one piece. Keep this aside until the end. The inside of the pastry will have dough webbings (see picture below). You can remove these and make sure the pastry case is hollow. Do the same with the top piece, but it may have less webbings. Second step – Prepare the filling Once you have made the praline mousseline cream for the Paris Brest, scoop the filling inside a large pastry bag. I use a 16 inch or 18 inch pastry bag. Choose a piping tip for the filling as well. Since the praline mousseline cream will be visible between the layers of the Paris Brest choux pastry, it’s customary to pipe the filling with a decorative tip. I like to use a large open star or closed star tip for this, but you can absolutely use a round plain tip as well. I prefer to place the piping tip in a separate piping bag, and place the filled piping bag inside. This way, I can change piping tips easily if I wish to. Step three – Fill the pastry Paris-Brest is usually overfilled with the filling cream, in order to show a decorative piped filling. The first step of filling the Paris Brest with the praline mousseline cream is to fill the bottom of the pastry so that it’s easier to pipe the filling in a decorative pattern in the middle (see picture below). For convenience, I prefer to pipe a line of the filling in the pastry, but you can also change things up and fill it with something different. For example,
Chocolate ganache Chocolate pastry cream Praline paste Filling and fruits Whipped cream
This allows you to add more flavor and textures to your Paris Brest pastry. Next, pipe the praline mousseline cream into the pastry. Here are some suggestions. Swirls – You can pipe it in swirls, for an easy decorative pattern. Blobs – With a plain piping tip, pipe smooth blobs the same way as above. Rope piping – Use the star tip to pipe a rope border. Shell piping – Use a star tip to pipe a shell pattern. However, pipe the shell with the wide part facing out, and the thin part facing the inside. Step four – Finish the pastry Once you have piped in the praline mousseline cream in the Paris Brest, place the top of the pastry back on the piped cream. You should be able to see about 1 inch of the filling between the two pieces of choux pastry. Dust the top with icing sugar if you like. Now your paris brest pastry with praline mousseline cream is ready to be served! Step five – Serving the pastry Although you pipe the pastry on a 5 inch ring here, the pastry will expand as it bakes. The final size of the pastry is close to about 7 inches. If you can eat one by yourself, then you ABSOLUTELY should! 😀 It’s utterly delicious, rich decadence with every bite! However, I do recommend sharing the love with others too. Use a serrated knife and cut the Paris-Brest pastry into sections, like a cake. Then you can serve this dessert to plenty more people.
Pro tips for making Paris Brest
Get the choux pastry dough right. Most people fail at this very first (and most fundamental) step because their choux pastry turns out to be flat and deflated because they added too much egg. Follow my tips to get the best and most consistent choux pastry results, which include how to know what your dough should look like for perfect pastry shells. Use the right piping tips. The combination of the two thicknesses will give your paris brest pastry an excellent puff and stability. For the bottom two rings, use a piping tip with a diameter of about 0.35 – 0.4 inches (8.5 mm – 10 mm). For the top ring of dough, use a piping tip with a diameter of about 0.5 – 0.6 inches (12.7 mm – 15.2 mm). Prick the choux pastry case in the last 5 minutes of baking, so that the steam can escape from inside the pastry, and dry it out a bit. This prevents the pastry from collapsing. When you’re making pastry cream, make sure to continuously whisk the pastry cream to prevent the eggs from curdling. The corn starch will also help with this, but the custard must be agitated well to prevent it from setting and forming clumps as well. If the custard is cooking too fast, then remove it from the heat and whisk to evenly distribute the heat, and lower the heat of the stove as well. Whisk and cook the custard for at least 45 seconds AFTER it comes to a boil (bubbles breaking the surface). This is because the cornstarch must be boiled so that it’ll be activated and thicken the cream. Use a good food processor to make the praline paste, if you want to make homemade praline paste. However, you can also easily purchase this from the store. Do not whip the mousseline cream for too long, as it will become more airy. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. However, mousseline cream is not supposed to be as airy as buttercream. It has a more dense, creamy texture. Bake one tray at a time in a conventional or convection home oven. If you bake two trays at a time, there is a great chance that either of the batches will not come out well. Use a serrated knife to evenly cut/slice the choux pastry when you’re assembling the paris brest.
Variations
While the classic Paris Brest pastry is filled with praline mousseline cream, you don’t have to be limited by this to make different variations. You can flavor your mousseline cream with,
Chocolate, Coffee, Fruits,
Add other flavors in addition to the filling such as,
Fresh fruits, Praline powder, Ganache Honeycomb candy Freeze dried fruit powder Salted caramel sauce
You can also change the filling altogether and substitute it with,
Stabilized whipped cream Pastry cream (vanilla or chocolate) Diplomat cream Whipped ganache
Profiterole Paris Brest ring Another variation of Paris Brest is to make a ring of pâte à choux where you make choux pastry profiteroles or cream puffs, and then stick them together in a ring shape. In the picture below, I filled 7 choux pastry puffs with the praline mousseline cream, and dipped each of the tops in caramel. Then connected them with caramel to create a ring shape.
Frequently asked questions
Storage instructions
Paris brest pastry tastes best the day it’s made. Choux pastry is usually crisp straight out of the oven, but loses the crispness as it cools down. However, it still has a sturdy case that is not soggy. Since the pastry is delicate, it does become stale within a day or two. Once the choux pastry is filled however, the filling will make the choux pastry soggy and make it taste stale as well. I recommend making Paris Brest the day that you want to serve it for the best taste. However, you can store leftovers for a later date. FRIDGE – Store in an airtight container and then in the fridge for no more than 3 days. The pastry will taste stale the longer you keep it. FREEZER – Store in an airtight container and then in the freezer for up to 1 month. This is what I prefer to do. Thaw out only what you need, at room temperature, for a few hours. The pastry will not be as fresh as freshly assembled Paris-Brest, but it’s the best way to store this pastry.
