Paris Brest Choux: Delicious Nutty choux

 For some people, choux pastry is nothing special, or a bit boring, but I think there are a lot of change lately. 

 I think Choux pastry is a good canvas, you can add endless flavours into it, both sweet and savoury, and the choux itself is delicious to eat too ^^.
I love making choux, it's a magic, when you can turn simple thing like, flour, butter, water, egg into this puffy thing. There are many way to check that your batter is ready or not, I prefer using my finger to stretch the batter, if it has enough egg, you will feel it instantly. It's not easy to give exact amount of each elements for making this kind of dessert. You will get more or less pieces both by the way you pipe it or how many egg that you can put into the batter (depend on the dryness of the flour before adding the egg), so the filling will be more or less than you need too.
This time, it's Paris Brest Choux, with praline paste and nut to give its delicious taste. Cream Mousseline is suitable to use in this dessert as it's not too rich and soften easily at room temperature as it's a mixture of pastry cream and butter. Don't forget to make the Praline Coulis the day before you making this dessert as it's soft and melts very easily. 


This is the adaptation style of Paris Brest, if you want to make the traditional one use this recipe: Paris Brest: Deliciously rich choux pastry

Paris Brest Choux

Makes 15-18 pieces 

Praline Coulis
135g ................................ Praline paste
35g .................................. Water

Almond praline
50g ........................... Almond dice
50g ........................... Granulated sugar
15ml ........................... Water
.................................... Pinch of salt

Almond crumble
70g .................................... Unsalted butter
75g .................................... Almond powder
75g .................................... Granulated sugar
90g ..................................... All purpose flour
2.5g .................................... Salt

Praline Mousseline Cream
Pastry cream
-480g ................................ Milk
-45g .................................. Corn starch
-114g .................................. Granulated sugar
- ........................................ Pinch of salt
-2...................................... Egg
-60g .................................. Unsalted butter, soft
70g .................................... Praline paste
360g .................................. Unsalted butter, soft 

Choux pastry
95g .................................... Whole milk
95g .................................... Water
75g .................................... Unsalted butter
7g ...................................... Granulated sugar
3.7g ................................... Salt
115g ................................... All purpose flour
160-170g ........................... Eggs


Make Praline Coulis:

 Put praline and water into a microwavable bowl, heat in a microwave at low power for 1 minutes or until praline paste melt.
Mix with whisk until combine. 
Pour into 2.8cm hemispherical mold and freeze until ready to use (overnight is the best).


Make the almond praline:

Line the baking sheet with baking paper. 
Put both water and sugar into a medium saucepan, heat until 115C. Pour the almond dice and a pinch of salt into the saucepan, the remove from the heat.

 Stir until fully cover, then return to the heat and cook until the sugar caramelise. 

 Pour onto the prepared baking sheet, let it cool before using.

Make Almond crumble:

Put all the ingredients into a bowl and mix with your finger until fully combine.

 

 Roll between 2 sheets of baking paper (about 2mm thickness), refrigerate until firm.

Make Pastry cream

Warm the milk until almost boil.
Meanwhile whisk the egg, corn starch,  salt and sugar together in a small saucepan.
When the milk become hot, slowly pour into the saucepan, whisk all the time.

Then place the pan over low heat until boil, whisk all the time.

 Remove from the heat and stir in the butter.

Mix with praline paste while still hot.  
Place plastic wrap directly over the pastry cream.
Let it cool to room temperature before using.

 When the pastry cream cool to room temperature, put the butter into the bowl.

Beat until smooth.

Make choux pastry:

 Preheat the oven to 200C.
Line the baking sheet with baking paper or silpat.
Put the butter, milk, water, sugar and salt into a saucepan.
Place over medium heat until fully boil.

 Sift the flour, when the mixture become boil, remove the saucepan from the heat and pour the sifted flour into the saucepan.
Stir the mixture over low heat for 2-3 minutes.

 Remove from the heat.
Beat with hand mixer until barely warm.

Add the egg into the bowl, you may not need all the egg (or you may need more ^^). 

  Check the pastry by using your finger.

 Put in a piping bag with 1 cm tip.
Pipe into 5 cm round (15-18 pieces).
Cut the almond crumble and place on top.
Bake for 25 minutes.
Reduce the temperature to 160C and bake for 10 minutes more.

Pipe into 2.5 cm round (15-18 pieces).
Cut the almond crumble and place on top.
Bake for 20minutes.
Reduce the temperature to 160C and bake for 5 minutes more.

You will get 15-18 pieces, (both large and mini size choux pastry. )
Let the choux pastry cool on a wire rack before filling it.

Assemble:

 Cut the small choux and place Praline coulis into the center.

 Cover with the top of the choux.

Cut the large choux pastry in half.
Place the small choux in the center of the large one, and pipe Praline Mousseline cream around and over the small choux.
Sprinkle with almond praline and place the top of the choux over the cream.
Refrigerate at least 1 hour before serving.

Paris Brest Choux: Delicious Nutty choux