Baking - Paris Brest

I thought it would be an efficient and simple practical lesson today, seeing that we only have one pastry recipe to bake.

What I failed to realize, is that we're making not just Paris Brest, but also the pastry cream and mousseline cream by hand - which pretty much meant heavy duty whisking.

Today, I learned new recipes that can be made using the same pâte à choux or left over pâte à choux after, let's say baking eclairs or chouquettes. Chef Marc demonstrated to us on how to prepare Fondant, different mignardises, Churros and of course, Paris Brest.

Preparaton du fondant; which is a different type of fondant as compared to the British's fondant which can be used to cover cakes and shape animals and what not. This fondant is slightly more liquid, and is used to glaze on choux pastries.

Different Mignardises; They are usually small sized desserts like petit four, and is usually referred to an assortment of small desserts usually served with coffee at the end of a meal, as a sweet reminder of the chef's skills.

These are praline mousseline cream filled puffs with fondant coatings, they are very light and is extremely delicious.

Chef Marc made Churros using the leftover pâte à choux from the preparations of Paris Brest. Yummy small churros, coated with cinnamon sugar. The shape is a lot more different from its Spanish brother (which is longer), but nontheless as delicious. 

And there, the centerpiece; Paris Brest. It was created in 1891 to commemorate the Paris-Brest bicycle race, with the shape looking like a wheel.

This time round, I was afraid that the pastry will again, melt or become too soggy during the transportation back home, so I managed to take photos in the kitchen itself right after presentation!

Presenting my own 'wheel'!

It wasn't easy to first pipe the circle shape. There's the outside shape and one inner core to pipe, we used a large about 18cm cookie cutter to draw the outlines and pipe accordingly, but ensuring that the pressure being applied is the same is the challenge here. The pastry will be baked in the oven, and once ready, that's when you can see the thickness of the 'wheel'.

Then, we have to mix two types of creams, making first, the pastry cream - in which we pasteurize the milk with the egg yolks mixture consisting of flour, sugar and egg yolks. It's an important process because if done correctly, the preservation life of the cream will be longer.

Afterwhich, we have to mix the above pastry cream with the almond praline - but first, we have to whisk the almond praline to the most lightest shade of light brown, before adding in the pastry cream.

The workout I get from the above activity is even more intensive than lifting 10kg weights on each arm. HAHA!

The Paris Brest is then piped in the middle of the choux pastry after slicing the top, then the inner core is placed in, and shells are piped both inside and outside, covering the core in the middle. This taste so good! I wished for the umpteen times that I can transport this back to Singapore for all my families and friends to try my Paris Brest. =)

I also get to fill these smaller eclairs with the praline mousseline cream as extras (not judged during presentation). =)

That's all I have for now! I'll be doing a practical on Eclairs and also, receiving my best friend, Chanel at the airport this coming Friday! I cannot wait! So glad she made the trip to visit me, and it seems like she has a lot of goodies too!

Till then!