Paris Brest

Paris Brest is definitely the Queen of French pastries! A crispy ring of pâte à choux filled with silky hazelnut praline crème mousseline and decorated with roasted hazelnuts and flaked almonds. It's a challenge worth making! My classic French recipe for Paris-Brest has extra praline paste and roasted hazelnuts in the filling, adding extra crunchiness. Trust me, Paris Brest is one of the most impressive desserts!

This recipe has been on the blog since 2020, and so many readers have had huge success making it. Since then, I have updated the recipe with more tips and additional filling ideas based on your questions, making it the most comprehensive recipe available. It's a challenge worth trying!

Best foolproof Paris Brest recipe

While making homemade Paris-Brest, we're looking for a golden brown ring of choux pastry with no cracks, an even rise, and a lovely big air pocket inside for the filling. And it also has to hold its shape after baking! I have so many tips for baking choux pastry to help you avoid typical beginner mistakes. Keep on reading.

Then comes the filling! The best Paris Brest has a stable yet silky hazelnut praline crème mousseline inside that is light but can hold its shape.

And finally, presentation! The dessert has to have a perfect circular appearance. It is round, resembling a bike wheel, because the recipe was created in 1910 by Pastry chef Louis Durand to commemorate the Paris–Brest–Paris bicycle race.

This is a professional Paris-Brest recipe adapted for the home kitchen. No one will believe you didn't buy your Paris-Brest in a fancy French pastry shop!

Katalin's Key Take on how hard it is to make fancy Paris Brest in a home kitchen environment

I'll walk you through making the choux pastry and the hazelnut praline cream filling, so even a beginner baker can make it. However, like all French pastry recipes, it has several components and is scientific in its approach. So precision is key! Things can go very wrong if you don't follow the recipe strictly.

Personally, I think the most challenging part of a Paris Brest recipe is probably piping the ring shape to achieve that professional, elegant finish. But again, I'll give you my tips and tricks to get it right, and you can practice until you feel comfortable with the result!

Consider this recipe a Paris-Brest and choux pastry crash course, and it will be the only Paris Brest recipe that you will ever need!

My best advice on the ingredients

The ingredients for Paris Best are all quite basic; you likely already have many of them. However, there are a few important things to note.

The flour for the choux ring needs to have a high protein content to achieve the air pocket. Do not use regular, plain all-purpose flour or pastry flour; instead, look for one labeled as 'strong' or 'bread flour'. The flour I use has 12% protein. Make sure you sift it to avoid any lumps!

We use water and milk in the choux with a 50:50 ratio, and the milk must be full-fat. Use white granulated sugar and high-fat, good-quality European-style unsalted butter. It helps if the butter is at room temperature so that it doesn't take too long to melt into the mixture. Don't forget the salt!

I will have special notes on the quantity of eggs later in this recipe. But they must be at room temperature. You will need whole eggs for the choux and egg yolks only for the crème mousseline. Try my pavlova recipe if you want to use up your egg whites!

I use Callebaut hazelnut praline paste for the crème mousseline filling as it is professional quality and tastes delicious. You can also make your own hazelnut praline, or even substitute the hazelnut praline with hazelnut butter. However, if doing this, you will need to add more sugar to the pastry cream to compensate for the lack of sugar in the hazelnut butter.

Start with making pâte à choux

Place the water, milk, sugar, salt, and room-temperature butter chunks in a saucepan over medium heat. We need to dissolve the sugar and melt the butter into the liquid. It needs to reach a simmering point, but do not let it boil, as we don't want to evaporate any of the water.

Dump the sifted flour into the saucepan all at once and stir it rapidly with a rubber spatula to form a paste. Now we must cook the dough (known as the panade) for a few minutes over medium heat, constantly mixing it.

The cooking process of the panade is ready when some moisture evaporates from the dough and a thin skin forms on the bottom of the saucepan.

Mixing the eggs in like a Pro

Mixing the egg into choux pastry needs a bit of judgment. The quantity of eggs needed will vary, and we don't want to add too little or too much. So there are markers to look out for, and you may need slightly more or slightly less than is stated in the recipe. Mix them together before you begin, and make sure they are at room temperature.

Place the dough into a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. You can also use an electric hand mixer, or even do this stage by hand in a bowl with a spatula.

Start the mixer on medium speed, and add the egg a small amount at a time. Whisk after each addition to let it incorporate, then add a little more. It might seem like it won't incorporate, but give it some time, and it will mix in.

Eventually, the dough will come together and reach a glossy, pipeable consistency. Apply the “V test” to check when you have added enough egg: The dough is ready when it slowly falls from the paddle attachment in a V shape. It should not stay stuck to the paddle or drip off too quickly. It needs to fall slowly in a V shape (see photos).

Pipe the Paris Brest rings

Move the dough into a pastry bag fitted with a French star nozzle tip and take care to press out any air bubbles. Don't use a round nozzle tip, you'll get much better results with a star tip in terms of how the choux puffs up.

Place the piping bag filled with dough in the fridge for 1-2 hours. This will help you to achieve a choux pastry ring with no cracks.

Prepare a perforated “air” baking mat with parchment paper on top. The recipe makes 3 Paris Brests, measuring 19 cm (7.5 inches) in diameter. Since choux pastry expands in the oven, you will need to pipe circles of choux pastry that are approximately 14 cm (5.5 inches) in diameter.

Pipe a circle of choux pastry, and then another one outside, ensuring it touches the edges of the first one. Then, one more should go on top. Repeat this twice more for the other Paris-Brest rings. This part takes some practice!

Cover the surface of the choux dough rings with roasted almond slices. This adds texture, flavor, and visual interest, but also helps the choux to bake evenly without bursting all over the surface.

Place the tray with 3 Paris Brest into the freezer for at least one hour.

Now bake and watch the magic

Preheat your oven to 200°C (392°F) without a fan. It's essential to thoroughly preheat your oven when baking choux pastry (or any other baking). Why without fan? Most home oven fans blow all around the place and choux pastry does not like that.

Place the tray with the frozen Paris-Brest in the oven, and immediately reduce the temperature to 170°C (338°F).

Bake the choux rings for 40 minutes, and do not open the oven door for the first 30 minutes. Check how one of the choux rings is after 40 minutes. They should be golden in color, nicely puffed up, and not deflate at room temperature. The middle will not be raw, but it will continue to dry out as it cools.

Once the choux pastry rings are well-baked, let them cool on the mat.

What is Crème Mousseline

Crème Mousseline (also known as German buttercream) is a silky, fluffy yet stable cream made of pastry cream and added butter. It can be used as a cream filling for cakes and cupcakes, and it is also very popular in French-style recipes, such as Fraisier cake, Sable Breton tart, and Charlotte cake. In this Paris-Brest, we add hazelnut praline to the crème mousseline to create a delicious filling.

Make the pastry cream base

Use a hand whisk to whip the sugar and egg yolks together for 1-2 minutes, until they are slightly fluffy.

Mix in corn starch, flour, and vanilla extract until thoroughly incorporated, and you have a smooth paste.

Place milk into a saucepan over medium heat. Remove it from the heat as soon as it starts simmering. Make sure it is simmering but not crazy boiling.

Pour the warm milk very slowly over the egg yolk mixture while whisking vigorously with a hand whisk. Don't do this too fast, or you will scramble the eggs with the hot milk and have to start again! The mixture should begin to thicken slightly.

Pour the mixture back into the saucepan and cook on medium heat for a few minutes until it thickens even further. This occurs typically approximately 1 minute after the first boil. It might get lumpy at first, but don’t worry. Just keep whisking, and the cream will get smooth and glossy. It helps to use a good-quality pan for this.

You can strain the pastry cream at this stage if you are concerned about lumps.

Otherwise, continue by adding the chunks of room-temperature soft butter in three stages. Mix with a rubber spatula until each addition is completely incorporated.

Place the pastry cream into a shallow bowl or container and cover the entire surface with plastic wrap to avoid a skin from forming on top. Let it cool to room temperature before continuing.

Make the hazelnut mousseline cream

Once the pastry cream has cooled to room temperature, move on to the final stage.

Place the softened, room temperature butter into your stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Cream the butter for a few minutes until it is pale and creamy. Then, add the praline paste and whip until well combined.

Now add the room-temperature pastry cream in 4 stages while the mixer is still running. Don't add it all at once.

Continue creaming the mixture until it reaches a fluffy, pipeable consistency. This will take about 1-2 minutes, but don't overwhip it, or it can become runny.

Transfer the freshly whipped mousseline cream into a piping bag fitted with a nozzle. You can use a Wilton 1M piping nozzle tip or a French star nozzle tip.

If you think your hazelnut mousseline is too soft to pipe, chill it for an hour in the fridge. But remember that butter hardens in the fridge, so if you leave it in there for too long, it will be too hard to pipe.

Fill & Serve

Carefully cut the top off each choux ring using a serrated bread knife.

Fill the bottom half of the choux ring with chopped roasted hazelnuts, using about one tablespoon per ring.

Pipe some of the hazelnut praline paste on top of the roasted hazelnuts, as per the picture below.

Pipe the hazelnut praline mousseline cream all around the choux ring.

Dust the top part of the choux ring with powdered sugar and place it on top. Decorate with some more roasted hazelnuts and hazelnut skins.

Other filling ideas

Paris-Brest is traditionally a hazelnut-flavored dessert, but you can try to use other nuts as a base instead. Try making the filling with pistachio butter, walnut butter, or pecan butter and increasing the sugar content in the pastry cream. Or, you can make the cream with Nutella too, check my Ferrero Rocher cake for detailed instructions.

I love the flavors of raspberries and hazelnuts, so why not try adding some fresh raspberries as a garnish or even inside the Paris-Brest?

Troubleshooting Paris Brest

My choux dough is too runny to pipe. This could be down to two issues. Perhaps you mixed your flour in slowly rather than adding it all at once, or you added too much egg. Please note that you cannot add extra flour at this stage; unfortunately, you will need to start the process again.

My choux ring deflated after baking. If you used strong bread flour with high protein, it was most likely not baked well enough. Perhaps you took it out too soon, or maybe your oven wasn't hot enough. Bake them longer next time.

My cream filling is too runny. The pastry cream base needs to be stable. Then, you'll want to follow my tips on how to properly whip this kind of cream with the butter without the cream curdling. Just like making most other kinds of frosting, the temperature is key, and you mustn't overwhip the mixture. Make sure to stop whipping as soon as the mixture is fluffy and pipeable, because a minute later, it will break and become runny. If the cream feels just a little soft in the piping bag, don't worry; it will set in the fridge, so let it chill briefly.

How to store

Once you assemble the Paris-Brest, it should be served immediately, or within a few hours. The choux pastry tends to get soggy from the filling over time, which is normal. If you do have any leftovers, they should be stored in the fridge for up to 1 day in an airtight container.

Mousseline cream does not freeze well and might break. However, you can freeze the choux pastry before baking. I recommend placing it on a tray in the freezer uncovered until frozen, then carefully wrapping it in plastic food wrap or putting it into a ziplock bag. Be careful with it! The baked choux ring can also be frozen. However, the crispiness might be lost a bit after thawing.

Do not substitute ingredients

French patisserie is a very precise science, and the recipe really does need to be followed to the letter. For example, if you use all-purpose flour or pastry flour instead of strong bread flour, there won't be enough protein, and the choux pastry won't work as well. If you substitute eggs, there will be no rising agent, and the choux pastry will be flat. Butter is essential in both the choux pastry and the filling.

Read my baking guides to learn more about common baking ingredients and why making swaps can be problematic.

My final expert tips

1. Make sure your eggs and butter are all at room temperature before you begin this recipe.
2. Butter takes around an hour to soften sufficiently when taken out of the fridge. It is ready when a finger pressed into it leaves an indent. Here is how to soften butter quickly.
3. When making choux pastry, the most critical part is mixing in the eggs. Make sure to do it in small amounts at a time, regularly check the dough consistency, and stop adding the eggs as soon as it passes the V-shape test.
4. If you have a cookie cutter or bowl the right size, you can use it to make a piping guide. Dip the edge into powdered sugar and place it on the mat to form a circle shape.
5. Don't skip the two chilling periods for the dough (once in the piping bag and once on the tray). Both are important to achieve neat, crack-free results.
6. The fan setting on your oven will encourage cracks in the choux rings. Don't use it!

Useful Equipment

Baking is a science, so weigh your ingredients by the gram using a digital scale.

Mix your choux dough in a stand mixer or using an electric hand whisk. Use a rubber spatula for other mixing.

Bake choux dough rings on a perforated “air” baking mat, a silicone baking mat, or parchment paper.

I strongly recommend using a French star nozzle tip to pipe choux rings (and also other choux pastry items).

Always make sure you are baking at the right temperature by using a digital oven thermometer.

When making pastry cream, use a small/medium saucepan that has good heat distribution, or you risk burning the milk. 

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, sign up for my Online baking class! 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!

Try some of my other choux pastry recipes

If you loved making this Paris Brest recipe, try some other dessert recipes with choux pastry next!

• Eclairs
• Cream puffs
• Choux au craquelin
• Chouquettes
• Profiteroles
• Croquembouche

And check out this round-up of fancy desserts if you are looking for other ways to impress!

Have you tried this recipe?

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