Patisserie 10.5: Paris-Brest again

This is just a short post, but I made the Paris-Brest pastries again, incorporating the following changes that I wanted to improve on from last time: 

• Pipe the correct diameter circles (OD 70mm)
• Using 10mm piping tip for larger choux width
• Chilling the mousseline prior to piping for sharper results
• Filling the pastries more liberally
  
• Figuring out the correct piping pattern for the mousseline
  
• Making a large batch of praline from scratch to eliminate hazelnut chunks that might clog my piping tip

I did still end up using almost an entire extra egg (3.8) compared to the three that the recipe calls for. The larger piping tip resulted in fewer total pastries (14 total), but also had the unintended effect of needing longer to bake. I removed the first batch from the oven a little too early, and this resulted in a few of the rings sagging slightly, though none deflated entirely. Otherwise, though, these rose fairly well and were not overwhelmingly bagel-like.

The ring in the foreground is deflated slightly, while those in the back are round. Should have left them in the oven longer, especially since drying out isn't really a concern with milk in the mix and a filling on top of that.

Since I filled these pastries the same day as I baked them, the choux shells were crisper, but so were the almonds. This resulted in a lot of the almonds chipping off while I was cutting the shells in half. I'm beginning to see why so many modern Paris-Brest variations choose to use pearl sugar as a topping instead. 

I piped an initial ring of chilled mousseline into the bottom half of the choux this time, to fill in some of the space.

I piped an initial ring of mousseline to fill in the cavities in the choux, so the prettier piped ripples would not sink down

Then, I piped loop-de-loops of mousseline in a circle around the pastry, which is a technique I picked up after browsing Instagram to figure out how the heck I was supposed to pipe the mousseline to get those nice ripples when viewed from the side.

Mousseline piped using overlapping loops to achieve the scalloped edges when viewed from the side

The more liberal piping of the mousseline yielded only one dozen Paris-Brest completed, but my, were they picturesque!

Paris-Brest, attempt two! I think this is a faithful reproduction, but I admit I have never had one of these from a patissier before.

Even though I chilled the mousseline prior to piping, the shapes were not as sharp as pictured in The Book, but the mousseline was airier in general than last time. I think I'm ready to move on from choux/this recipe, though I may come back and visit eclairs soon because I've been seeing a lot of beautiful ones coming in lately with fruit flavors as the weather has warmed (and had a delicious strawberry one a few weeks ago). Now I just have this extra praline paste that I have to resist eating with a spoon. 

Quote of the day: 

Patisserie 10: Paris-Brest/ Praline buttercream choux pastry

 Since the previous recipe contained a fair amount of hazelnuts and originated the hazelnut praline in this recipe, I decided it would be reasonable to do this one immediately after to decrease making small batches of niche ingredients. 

The Paris-Brest is a circular choux ring that is covered in almonds and filled with praline cream of some sort. The pastry was commissioned to commemorate the Paris-Brest-Paris bicycle race, which is a long-distance race between the two cities and back, and the circular shape of the pastry is meant to evoke a bicycle wheel. Variations in the filling are common, ranging from diplomat cream (stabilized whipped cream) to pure buttercream and everything in between, though the praline (caramelized hazelnut) is a typical base flavor. The version in The Book uses a mousseline cream, which is what you call buttercream + pastry cream + a flavoring (in this case, praline). 

Patisserie 9.5: Succès praliné, but more correctly this time

 I was so angry at how much I'd messed up every step of the cake on Friday that I marched back to the grocery store on Monday morning to buy more hazelnuts and try again. 

And I still didn't buy enough hazelnuts! Turns out hazelnuts are not as heavy as I think they are, and they're also a little expensive. But I hedged my bets this time by also acquiring some hazelnut butter, in case my food processors were unable to handle trying to grind hazelnuts into a paste, especially at the small quantities used in the recipes. So I ground the 160g of roasted hazelnuts for the dacquoise first, and hoped I would be able to caramelize an adequate amount for the praline to be sweet enough.

But considering how delicious the cake was on Friday despite my mistakes, I was looking forward to doing it much better this time. I duly grabbed my candy thermometer and food processor from storage to try and do things right this time around.

Patisserie 9: Succès praliné/Hazelnut Almond Dacquoise (with Italian Meringue buttercream)

 After tackling the most pastry-like intermediate cake recipes in the cake section of The Book, and seeing as it was mid-March and not a great berry season, I and my abundance of egg whites from various pastry creams decided to try making the hazelnut-almond dacquoise cake with Italian meringue buttercream. 

A dacquoise can both refer to this style of cake (hazelnut-almond meringue layers with buttercream) or the cake layer itself (nut meringue). Praline is a paste made of caramel and hazelnuts. Buttercream, contrary to the American style of the frosting that contains only butter and confectioner's sugar, typically in the French tradition includes whipped egg yolks, a meringue of some sort, or, in the case of this recipe from The Book, both. Italian meringue specifically refers to egg whites beaten with a hot sugar syrup (as opposed to the French meringue which is egg whites simply beaten with sugar) and has increased stability because the egg whites get cooked. 

I started this cake at 10am on a Friday morning and by the time it was 1pm, I was covered in sugar and meringue and very mad. Mostly at myself, for making a series of mistakes that cascaded into a cake that was not...bad, exactly, but nothing like the recipe intended.