Paris-Brest (VIDEO)

Paris-Brest, a delicate ring shape Choux pastry with Hazelnut Praline Crème Mousseline filling, is definitely the Queen of French pastries! Crispy Pâte à Choux bonds together with silky, nutty Creme Mousseline filling in my Classic French recipe! Extra praline paste and roasted hazelnuts in the filling bring additional crunchiness making this Paris-Brest one of the most impressive desserts of all!

Jump to:

• 🌟 Why this is the best Paris-Brest recipe
• 💪 How hard it is to make this recipe
• 📖 History of Paris-Brest
• 💡 What is Crème Mousseline
• 📝 Ingredient notes
• 👩‍🍳 How to make this recipe
• 🥣 Equipment notes
• 🎓 Expert tips
• ❓Recipe FAQs
• ✨ More Choux pastry recipes
• 🔥 Join my Ferrero Rocher inspired Paris-Brest dessert Online Baking Class
• ULTIMATE Paris-Brest (VIDEO)

🌟 Why this is the best Paris-Brest recipe

While making Paris-Brest the perfect result we are looking for is a ring shape choux pastry that is risen evenly (so no major cracks on the side), holds its shape after baking, and has a lovely huge air pocket inside the choux that can be filled with a stable yet silky Hazelnut Praline Crème Mousseline.

My Paris-Brest recipe will teach you all the below and even more;

1. How to achieve evenly baked choux pastry with no major cracks on the surface. I have tons of tips along the way to avoid typical beginner mistakes

2. How to make the most delicious, silkiest ever Paris-Brest filling; Hazelnut Praline Crème Mousseline, that is light yet able to hold its shape. Temperature is the most important factor while whipping up this cream, see my tips below

3. How to assemble the Paris-Best so it looks super elegant and a showstopper dessert on your dinner table

This is a professional Paris-Brest recipe that is adapted to the home kitchen environment. I will cover all the necessary information you probably haven´t read anywhere else so your Paris-Brest will turn out just like you would bough it from a fancy French pastry shop!

💪 How hard it is to make this recipe

Making this Paris-Brest recipe is actually not that hard, neither too complex nor time-consuming. What makes this recipe way easier than many other recipes out there is that I have step-by-step easy-to-follow instructions for you with tons of baking tips along the way!

The Pâte à choux itself comes together really easily using a handful of ingredients. The Hazelnut Praline Crème Mousseline filling is also quite an easy type of cream if you follow some basic baking rules that I will be sharing along the way. The most difficult part of the recipe is probably piping a ring shape, however, you can always practice that until you feel comfortable with the result.

The recipe might look long, and in fact, it is, because of the necessary information you need to know in order to succeed. Consider this recipe as a full-on Paris-Brest and Choux pastry crash course, the only Paris Brest recipe that you will ever need!

📖 History of Paris-Brest

The round pastry, in the form of a wheel, was created in 1910 by Pastry chef Louis Durand to commemorate the Paris–Brest–Paris bicycle race. Its circular shape is representative of a bike wheel. It became popular with riders on the Paris–Brest cycle race, partly because of its energizing high calorific value, its intriguing name, and because it is irresistibly delicious!

Paris–Brest what we know today is an elegant, round-shaped French dessert, made of choux pastry - just like eclair, cream puff, choux au craquelin, profiterole, etc. Paris-Brest is typically filled with praline flavored cream, called Crème Mousseline. Paris Brest is widely popular in French-style pastry shops (check where to find the best Paris-Brest in Paris!) and the good news is that it is totally doable to make even for hobby home bakers! Besides the traditional hazelnut flavored dessert, other popular flavors can be Paris Brest pistachio, Paris Brest au chocolat, Paris Brest raspberry pistachio, etc.

This Hazelnut Paris Brest is definitely a must-make if you like French pastries and Pâte à choux in particular! It is hands down the most delicious choux ever!

💡 What is Crème Mousseline

Crème Mousseline (also called German buttercream) is a silky, fluffy yet stable cream made of pastry cream and butter. It can be used as a cream filling for cakes, and cupcakes and it is also super popular in French-style recipes eg. Fraisier cake, Sable Breton tart, Charlotte cake, or this Paris Brest.

Crème pâtissière (pastry cream) is the perfect base for other custard-like creams:

• Crème Diplomat: Crème Diplomat is a lighter version of the French Pastry Cream (Crème Pâtissière). Basically, it is Crème Pâtissière with added whipped cream and gelatin (optionally). Whipped cream makes it lighter and fluffier and the gelatin makes it more stable. Gelatin is not strongly needed, depending on the type of cake
• Crème Mousseline: Crème Mousseline is classic Pastry Cream enriched with fluffy butter that makes the pastry cream extra rich and also more stable to pipe kind of like buttercream but way more delicious.

Classic Hazelnut Paris Brest is filled with Hazelnut Praline Crème Mousseline that is pastry cream flavored with hazelnut praline paste and enriched with butter. It is the most delicious cream filling you will ever make!

📝 Ingredient notes

For the choux pastry

1. Milk: Whole milk is the best, definitely avoid using milk substitutes for this recipe unless you are aware of how to reformulate the recipe
2. Sugar: This choux dough is made using granulated sugar. While heating the mixture up make sure sugar fully dissolves. If you want to learn about the different types of sugar and how to use them in baking, please read my  sugar guide
3. Water: The milk-water ratio in this Pâte à choux recipe is 50-50%. If you are more experienced, feel free to play around with different ratios
4. Salt: An essential ingredient in most of dessert recipes. Salt balances the flavor and enhances other ingredients, in the choux pastry recipe it also contributes to the right texture
5. Butter: Use always unsalted as you want to be in control of the quantity of the salt. I am using 82% fat content butter in all my recipes. While in most of the recipes butter needs to be at room temperature, this is an exception. Since butter will be heated with other ingredients over the stove, it is fine to use it straight out of the fridge
6. Flour: Make sure to use high protein content bread flour to achieve that lovely huge air pocket. I am using a 12% protein content flour, and get very poor results with low protein pastry flours. It might not be called bread flour in your country, please search for the protein content on the bag and purchase the one that is recommended to make bread, pizza, etc. If you want to be a Pro when it comes to deciding what type of flour to use in your baking, please read my flour guide
7. Egg: Room temperature as always. I will have special notes on the quantity of the egg at a later stage of this recipe

🛒 You’ll find detailed measurements for all Ingredients in the printable version of the Recipe Card at the bottom of this post

Hazelnut Praline Crème Mousseline

1. Milk: Use high fat content milk, the highest you can get! It makes a huge difference when it comes to deepness of the taste
2. Sugar: Simple, white granulated sugar is perfectly fine
3. Egg: Some pastry cream recipes call for whole egg however I strongly advise using egg yolk only for the best texture and flavor. Perhaps try my pavlova recipe if you want to use up your egg whites? Another, maybe not so obvious note is that the color of your egg yolk will dictate the color of your pastry cream. Farm eggs make super yellow pastry cream, on the other hand, supermarket eggs are usually way paler
4. Flour: Flour is one of the thickening agents in this pastry cream recipe, use All-purpose flour. No, it won’t taste like flour!
5. Starch: Corn starch is the other thickening agent in the recipe, theoretically you could only use flour OR only starch however I prefer 50%-50%.
6. Butter: Use unsalted as per above. Room temperature is key here. If too cold, it won’t incorporate properly. If too hot/liquid, it will make the pastry cream runny. We will use butter twice, first when making the pastry cream and then when making mousseline cream out of the pastry cream
7. Hazelnut Praline Paste: What makes this Paris-Brest super delicious is the hazelnut praline paste used both in filling the choux, also in the mousseline cream. Hazelnut Praline is effectively a paste that consists 50% hazelnut and 50% sugar (caramel to be exact). I prefer buying the praline paste online but it can be easily made at home by mixing toasted hazelnut with hot dry caramel, letting the mixture cool and harden then blending them together with a food processor until it becomes a paste. Make sure that your blender is strong enough to make the praline paste, it is quite an effort for the mixer that is why I prefer to buy it ready made. I absolutely adore hazelnut praline paste, it is a sweet, nutty paste with a super deep flavor. Not too thick, not too thin, mixing it with chocolate or pastry cream can take it to the next level. If you decide to purchase it, make sure you buy pure praline paste that is 50% nut (typically hazelnut) and 50% sugar. The one I am using is Callebaut Hazelnut Praline paste, see picture below. An alternative to substitute hazelnut praline paste is hazelnut butter, either store bought or homemade hazelnut butter. However, since it does not contain sugar, you will need to increase the sugar for the pastry cream.

🛒 You’ll find detailed measurements for all Ingredients in the printable version of the Recipe Card at the bottom of this post

👩‍🍳 How to make this recipe

1. How to make Pâte à choux

I have a very detailed tutorial about Choux pastry in my eclair recipe. It contains tons of useful information about the choux dough, how to pipe it, how to bake it, what equipment is needed etc. I even have a Troubleshooting guide in case something goes wrong, make sure you check it out.

Making any choux pastry whether it is Paris-Brest, eclair, cream puff, profiterole, or choux au craquelin starts with a cooking process. The choux dough is not the type of dough where you can add a bit of this, a bit of that at a later stage, the steps and their order in the recipe are strict therefore make sure you follow them.

• The choux dough is a cooked dough which means the butter, milk, water mixture the so-called first needs to be heated until simmering
• Add the flour and cook the dough (the so-called panade) for a few minutes (2-3minutes) over medium heat mixing constantly
• The cooking process of the panade is ready when some moisture evaporates from the dough and by then there should be a thin skin formed on the bottom of the saucepan.

💡 Top Tip: Make sure, you sift flour before adding it to the mixture as you want to avoid lumps

Mixing the egg in will need somewhat your judgment. Only add a small amount of egg at a time, consistently whisking after each addition. I am using the paddle attachment on my stand mixer, alternatively, this can be also done with an Electic Hand mixer but pay close attention to the consistency of the dough. First, the mixture might separate but keep your mixer on, and the dough will come together and should reach a glossy, pipeable consistency.

Please note, that depending on the flour you use and how much you “dried” the mixture at the cooking stage, you might need to use slightly more or less egg than stated in the recipe. Very important that you can not add more flour to the mixture at this late stage, so while adding the egg into the mixture check the dough consistency regularly, and if you accidentally add more egg and the dough is too runny, start again.

💡 Top Tip: Apply the “V test”: the dough is ready when it slowly falls down from the paddle attachment in a V shape. Slowly is key here, it should not be too runny, or you might find it difficult to pipe

2. How to pipe the ring shape

As mentioned above, while mixing the egg in you have to take into consideration to mix in as much egg to get a shiny, pipeable consistency. The mixture should not be too firm, nor too runny.

Move the dough into a pastry bag fitted with French star nozzle tip. You can also use a round nozzle tip but very likely that you won´t get a burst-free result with that. It is also important to get rid of any air bubbles before piping. You can achieve this by moving the dough into the piping bag in one go, as well as pressing the air pockets out of the piping bag with your hands before piping.

Now at this point, I suggest leaving the dough in the fridge for 1-2h – this helps to achieve even baking later without major cracks on the surface.

Then, dump a cookie cutter into powder sugar then tap it onto the Perforated “air” baking mat - these circles will help you while piping. Pipe 2 ring shapes next to each other so the choux dough touching each other, and one on top. Piping will take practice, if you are unhappy with the result, you can always move the dough back to the piping bag and start again.

Ideally, pipe the choux pastry onto Perforated “air” baking mat that provides even baking due to air circulation through the mat. Try to pipe evenly while holding the piping bag vertically. Alternatively, pipe the choux dough onto a baking sheet using a large tray. I don´t recommend using a silicone baking mat for making choux pastry as my experience is that choux somewhat gets wet from the bottom during baking. I suggest ideally Perforated “air” baking mat or parchment paper.

Then, cover the entire surface of the choux dough with roasted almond slices - again this will help the choux to bake evenly without bursting all over the surface.

Please note that the recipe makes 3 Paris-Brest about 19 cm / 7.5 inches in diameter each. Since the choux will expand in the oven, you will need to pipe about 14 cm / 5.5 inches.

💡 Top Tip: Before baking, you will have to freezer the choux rings. Why? For a neat, even baking! You can also store the unbaked Paris-Brest in the freezer for a few weeks

3. How to bake

Some suggest starting with a high baking temperature, then decreasing for the second half of the baking time. I find even baking temperature works better, supports more even baking. Having said that, I suggest to pre-heat the oven to a higher temperature (200 C / 392 F no fan) then decreasing it later, please see instructions in the recipe. Feel free to experiment with your own oven!

It is very important that you use a Digital oven thermometer that states the correct oven temperature. I personally do not bake without my oven thermometer on, and if your oven is over or under run 10C / 50F (that is very common), then it will be impossible to follow this recipe and get the same result.

I bake the choux for 40 minutes at 170 C / 338 F (no fan), but you need to test and try your own oven. It is a good idea to take one out at 40 min, wait for a minute to see whether it collapses, if not, very likely that it is well baked. Overall, I suggest starting with my baking suggestions however each oven is different, you have to find what works best for you.

Once choux pastry is well baked, let it cool on the mat.

💡 Top Tip: Do not open the oven door in the first 30 minutes under any circumstances as the choux might collapse

4. How to make pastry cream for the Hazelnut Praline Crème mousseline

Pastry cream is the most delicious rich, silky and creamy custard-like cream filling used in many types of desserts. You will have to make a pastry cream first that will be turned into Crème mousseline at a later stage with fluffy, soft butter. I have a whole detailed Baking Guide with tons of tips about making the perfect pastry cream (Creme Patissiere), make sure you read it.

• In a large enough bowl with the help of a Hand whisk, whip together sugar and egg yolk until slightly fluffy for about 1-2 minutes
• Mix in corn starch, flour, and vanilla until thoroughly incorporated and have a smooth paste
• Bring milk to boil in a saucepan on medium heat then remove it as soon as it starts simmering. Make sure it is simmering but not crazy boiling
• Pour the warm milk over the egg yolk mixture slowly while whisking vigorously with a Hand whisk. This stage is effectively tempering the egg yolks and the mixture should already start to slightly thicken
• Pour the mixture back into the saucepan and cook on medium heat for a few minutes until it thickens. Concretely it is approximately 1 min after the first boil. It might get lumpy first, don’t worry just keep whisking and the cream will get smooth and glossy. It’s worth keeping a good quality (so that the milk won’t burn in it) small/medium-sized saucepan for making pastry cream only
• If in doubt, strain the pastry cream for a lump-free, creamy end result
• Add in room temperature soft butter and mix with a Rubber spatula until completely incorporated. It is worth adding the butter in 3 stages and mixing well after each addition

💡 Top Tip: Pastry cream needs to be completely cooled to room temperature before using it to make the filling for the Paris-Brest. Place the cream into a shallow bowl or container and cover the entire surface with plastic wrap to avoid a skin forming on top

5. The process of making Hazelnut Praline Crème mousseline

This Paris-Brest filling is a rich, but not overly sweet cream, and very stable to pipe or to fill cakes.

The process is simple, however, you have to be careful with the temperature of the ingredients:

• It is very important that the pastry cream is cooled but not cold meaning either let it cool at room temp or cool it in the fridge then let it come back to room temperature
• The butter needs to be soft. Soft butter means soft enough without hard butter chunks for the mixer to cream it but do not melt it in the microwave as melted butter can´t be creamed
• So once pastry cream is set but not cold and butter is soft, move butter into your Stand mixer fitted with your whisk attachment and start creaming the butter for a few minutes until it becomes fluffy. Alternatively, this can be also done with an Electic Hand mixer but pay close attention to the consistency of the cream
• Once butter is creamy and pale, add praline paste and whip until combined
• Then, start adding the room temperature pastry cream in 4 steps (adding always ¼ only) while the mixer is still on
• Cream mixture until it reached a fluffy, pipeable consistency. This will take about 1-2 minutes
• Make sure you do not over whip the cream at this point as it can get runny

Please note that due to the butter content mousseline cream at this point might be on the soft side, if so, chill it for an hour before piping. However, do not fully chill it for hours as the cream gets firmer in the fridge over time and you might find it difficult to pipe.

💡 Top Tip: Room temperature is key while making mousseline cream. If either pastry cream or butter is too cold or too warm, you won´t be able to whip up the mixture properly as either butter will stay in chunks or the entire mixture will break and curdle

6. How to assemble the Paris-Brest

I recommend making the pastry cream first and letting it come to room temp. In the meantime, bake the choux pastry rings. After, prepare the hazelnut mousseline cream. Once choux rings and also the Hazelnut Praline mousseline cream is ready, assemble the Paris Brest as per below:

• Cut the top of each choux ring
• Fill the bottom of the choux ring with chopped roasted hazelnut all around, about one tablespoon per ring
• Pipe some hazelnut praline paste on top of the roasted hazelnuts, as per the picture below
• Move the freshly whipped mousseline cream into a piping bag fitted with a nozzle tip. You can use Wilton 1M piping nozzle tip or French star nozzle tip
• Pipe the hazelnut praline mousseline cream around the choux
• Dust the top part of the choux ring with icing sugar and place it on top
• Decorate the top with some more hazelnut and hazelnut skin

Voila, your Paris-Brest is ready, it will certainly impress all your family and friends!

💡 Top Tip: Please note that due to the butter content mousseline cream at this point might be on the soft side, if so, chill it for an hour before piping. However, do not fully chill it for hours as the cream gets firmer in the fridge over time and you might find it difficult to pipe.

🥣 Equipment notes

Perforated baking “air” mat for even baking

I have been using Perforated “air” baking mat for more than a year now from a brand called Silikomart and love it. I use it all the time for baking tarts, choux, and even for cookies. Thanks to the holes in the mat, the heat spreads evenly throughout the mat’s surface guaranteeing a perfect and even baking. Use the Perforated “air” baking mat on top of the oven rack so that the air can circulate properly. If you do not own this wonderful baking equipment it´s worth considering investing in it. Alternatively, lining a baking tray with a baking sheet can work too, it is just neater and less risky with Perforated “air” baking mat.

Stand mixer

Whipping the mousseline cream theoretically can be done with an Electric hand mixer, however, it is much safer to whip it in a Stand mixer using the whisk attachment. Especially if you are making 2-3 Paris-Brest desserts at the same time, a stand mixer is much more reliable and comfortable.

French star nozzle tip

As mentioned above a Wilton 6b French star nozzle tip is one of those super cheap and easy investments that can make or break your choux pastry recipe whether you are making Paris-Brest or eclair. If you want to max your chance of a neat, burst-free choux baking, I definitely recommend using a pastry bag fitted with a star nozzle tip.

🎓 Expert tips

1. While making choux pastry, the most critical part is mixing the egg in. Make sure you do it step-by-step, regularly checking the dough consistency, and stop adding the eggs as soon as passed the V shape test
2. While mixing the egg into the pate choux dough, the egg should be at room temperature and pre-whisked
3. Have you ever experienced choux collapsing after baking? A digital oven thermometer will be your best friend while making choux pastry, an inexpensive kitchen tool to ensure the correct baking temperature
4. When making the mousseline cream, the temperature is critical. Both pastry cream, as well as butter, must be at room temperature
5. Hazelnut praline can be easily substituted in the recipe with 100% hazelnut paste or pistachio paste, even peanut butter or Nutella, but make sure to adjust the sugar accordingly

❓Recipe FAQs

✨ More Choux pastry recipes

🔥 Join my Ferrero Rocher inspired Paris-Brest dessert Online Baking Class

If you want to try the most delicious combination of my Ferrero Rocher cake and this Paris-Brest dessert, you must sign up for my Online baking class where I will teach you how to make the most amazing Ferrero Rocher-inspired Paris-Brest dessert! Live and Pre-recorded Classes are available, do not miss this opportunity!