Paris-Brest — the bicycle-wheel choux ring with praline cream

i. Origin & history

The Paris–Brest–Paris race was first run in 1891: a gruelling long-distance cycle ride of some 1,200 kilometres from Paris to the port of Brest at the tip of Brittany and back. It was organised by Pierre Giffard of the newspaper Le Petit Journal as a showcase for the bicycle, which was then a new and fashionable machine, and it caught the public imagination.

The pastry came later. According to the generally accepted story, it was created in 1910 by Louis Durand, a pâtissier in Maisons-Laffitte, a town west of Paris on the route of the race. Durand is said to have been asked — some accounts say by Giffard himself — to create a pastry for the event, and he made a ring of choux pastry the shape of a bicycle wheel, filled with praline cream. The Durand family's pâtisserie in Maisons-Laffitte has long claimed the original.

The Paris-Brest quickly became a classic of French pâtisserie. Its rich praline filling also made it a sustaining treat, and legend has it that it was popular with cyclists for its energy. By the mid-twentieth century it was in every serious French pastry shop and in the standard textbooks used to train pâtissiers.

In the 2010s it enjoyed a remarkable revival, as Parisian pastry chefs reinvented it with individual crowns of choux puffs, a liquid praline centre and a crisp craquelin topping. The original remains the benchmark: choux, almonds and hazelnut praline cream. The same choux-pastry family includes the gâteau Saint-Honoré and the religieuse.

ii. What makes crème mousseline praliné hold its shape

The filling is what makes a Paris-Brest, and it is a carefully balanced emulsion. Crème mousseline starts as a stiff crème pâtissière — milk, egg yolks, sugar and starch, cooked until thick. Once it has cooled to room temperature, soft butter is beaten in until the mixture becomes pale, light and fluffy. Finally hazelnut praline paste — caramelised hazelnuts (and often almonds) ground until smooth and runny — is beaten in for flavour.

The butter does two jobs. It enriches the cream, and as it cools it firms up, so the cream holds a piped shape and supports the top of the choux ring. The temperature of the two components is critical: if the pastry cream is cold and the butter warm, or the other way round, the emulsion breaks into a curdled, greasy mess. Both should be at roughly the same temperature, around 20 °C. If it does split, gently warming the bowl while beating usually brings it back.

The choux ring has to be strong enough to hold all this cream. It is piped as two or three concentric rings that bake into one wide, tall ring, and baked thoroughly until deep golden and dry, so the walls are crisp and rigid. Underbaked choux collapses as it cools and softens quickly under the cream.

The praline paste is the soul of the dessert, and good praline makes all the difference. Homemade hazelnut praline — toasted hazelnuts cooked in caramel, cooled and blended until it liquefies — has a deeper, more toasted flavour than many commercial pastes. A spoonful of crushed praline folded into the cream adds crunch.

iii. Ingredients

Makes 8 servings · scroll the side panel to adjust

• 60 ml water
• 60 ml whole milk, for the choux
• 50 g unsalted butter, for the choux
• 1 pinch salt
• 1 tsp caster sugar
• 75 g plain flour
• 2 large eggs, beaten, plus 1 for glazing
• 30 g flaked almonds
• 300 ml whole milk, for the cream
• 3 egg yolks
• 60 g caster sugar
• 30 g cornflour
• 150 g unsalted butter, soft, for the cream
• 120 g hazelnut praline paste
• 1 tbsp icing sugar, to dust

Praline paste (praliné) is sold by specialist baking suppliers; choose one with a high nut content, ideally 50% or more, or make your own. Do not confuse it with chocolate hazelnut spread, which is mostly sugar and oil and will not give the right flavour or set. The milk-and-water choux gives a golden, tender shell; all water gives a crisper, paler one. Unsalted butter at soft room temperature is essential for a smooth mousseline. Toasted, chopped hazelnuts can replace the flaked almonds on top.

iv. Method

1. For the pastry cream, heat the milk until steaming. Whisk the yolks, sugar and cornflour, pour on the hot milk, return to the pan and cook, whisking, until thick and bubbling for 1 minute. Beat in 50 g of the butter, transfer to a dish, cover the surface with clingfilm and cool to room temperature.
2. Heat the oven to 200 °C (400 °F), fan 180 °C. Draw a 20 cm circle on baking paper and lay it, drawn side down, on a tray.
3. For the choux, bring the water, milk, butter, salt and sugar to a rolling boil. Add the flour all at once and beat over the heat for 1–2 minutes until the paste forms a smooth ball and leaves a film on the pan. Cool for 3 minutes, then beat in the eggs gradually until glossy and the paste falls from the spoon in a thick V.
4. Using a 1.5 cm star or plain nozzle, pipe a ring of choux following the drawn circle, a second ring just inside it touching the first, and a third on top where they meet. Brush with beaten egg and scatter with the flaked almonds.
5. Bake for 15 minutes, then reduce to 170 °C (340 °F), fan 150 °C, and bake for 25–30 minutes more, until deep golden, firm and light. Turn off the oven and leave the ring inside with the door ajar for 10 minutes. Cool on a rack.
6. Beat the cooled pastry cream until smooth. Beat the remaining 100 g soft butter until creamy, then beat in the pastry cream a spoonful at a time, followed by the praline paste, until pale and fluffy.
7. Split the choux ring horizontally with a serrated knife. Pipe the praline cream onto the base in generous rosettes or swirls, then replace the top.
8. Chill for 30 minutes to firm up. Dust with icing sugar just before serving.

v. Tips & common mistakes

• Bake the choux until it is deep golden. A pale ring collapses when it cools. Err on the side of darker.
• Do not open the oven early. The steam inside the choux is what lifts it; opening the door in the first 20 minutes can make it sink.
• Add the eggs gradually. Stop when the paste is glossy and falls in a thick V; too much egg makes a flat ring.
• Match the temperatures for the mousseline. Pastry cream and butter should both be at room temperature. If the cream curdles, warm the bowl briefly while beating.
• Assemble close to serving. The choux softens under the cream within a few hours. Fill it no more than 4 hours ahead.
• Use proper praline paste. Chocolate hazelnut spread does not set and tastes far sweeter and flatter.

vi. Variations

Individual Paris-Brests are piped as 8 cm rings and bake in about 25 minutes. Modern versions top the choux with craquelin, a thin disc of butter, sugar and flour that bakes into a crackly crust, and hide a liquid praline centre in the cream. A pistachio Paris-Brest swaps the hazelnut praline for pistachio paste, and coffee or chocolate versions are also common.

For other choux classics, see the gâteau Saint-Honoré and religieuse. Praline cream turns up in the hazelnut mousse and the dacquoise, and the chocolate hazelnut tart pairs it with chocolate.

vii. Serving & storage

Serve the Paris-Brest slightly chilled, cut into thick slices with a serrated knife, on its own or with a cup of strong coffee. It is very rich, so modest slices are generous. It makes an impressive dessert for a special lunch or dinner, and in France it is a weekend pâtisserie treat bought from the bakery for Sunday lunch.

Once filled, keep it in the fridge and eat it within 24 hours; the choux softens gradually. Take it out 15 minutes before serving so the cream is soft rather than hard. The choux ring can be baked a day ahead, stored airtight and re-crisped in a 160 °C oven for 5 minutes, or frozen unfilled for up to a month. The mousseline keeps for 2 days in the fridge — re-beat it at room temperature before piping.

ix. More from French

• Gâteau Saint-Honoré — caramel choux crown
• Religieuse — stacked choux nun pastry
• Hazelnut Praline — the filling's foundation
• Hazelnut Mousse — praline mousse
• Dacquoise — nut meringue layer cake
• Sfogliatelle — Neapolitan shell pastry