Sunday, June 1, 2008

Lesson 15 : Paris Brest

When we pronounce this name or we tell someone that..oh today i bake ''Paris Brest" ....I really want you guys to see thier faces...They like ''wat?''..hahaha...so funny...

Then I have to explain that'' It spells with B-r-e-s-t and is name of the city in the south of France... The origin of Paris Brest was named after a famous French cycling race from Paris to Brest.

The Paris-Brest is surprisingly simple to create. A ring of choux pastry is baked golden brown and then sliced in half for filling. Normally they use a praline (also called Mousseline) of almonds and sugar is ground up and added to vanilla pastry cream to make a sweet, nutty filling. But in our class, we use hazelnut...taste so like nutella! and ferrero rocher ..lol


Chef Micheal made a big Paris brest...

They are classically topped with sliced almonds and sometimes dusted with powdered sugar. Chef Michael tought us that we also can piped whipped cream on top on the paline....looks much nicer...


Small Paris Brest...like donut..isn't it?

Chef Michael told that because the paline is very rich,we can't eat too much......(it contains tons of butter ridiculously...425 g per 750 ml of milk...my gosh !)

We all won't believe him at first...like the small piece of paris brest (Donut size) Chef cut into 4 pieces...we were like..."come on ..chef..just 2 is fine.."hahaha...

I tasted one....soo rich...then ok..1 more...after i finish the 2nd ...OK !!..no more..can't any more........

Since the past 2 days making choux..i did a pretty good job...today i just try to make thing different...I saw chef Michael add more salt and sugar in water than i did...so this time i add more...

Also when I was making Panade, I was afraid about cook it too long..(dunno why have to afraid since i made it twice succesfully already)...So today i just cook my panade quicker.

Before i added eggs, I felt that my panade was quite wet ..After adding just 2-3 eggs (6 eggs in the recipe), I reckoned that today something different might happen to my choux...maybe today will be a perfect choux ..lol... but it's not !!! It was too runny...I put just 5 eggs then enough ... can't put anymore...Chef Michael said that.."Let's try baking it...Should be fine...No need to fix"


This was the tray of my Big Paris brest. Mine were the 2 dark at below...Su Jin were the top...

The problem were:

1. Someone turned off the oven when we put the choux inside..and chef just noticed about 25 mins later...he said during that time, the choux paste were dry out...when bake it, will not get a good product.

2. Mine were a bit darker than normal...cuz put too much sugar.

3. Since my panade was too runny...you can see the shape ^O^

Anyway, I think it looks nice...I told chef Michael ...This thing looks so rustic..(Meng said i am clever using that word..haha.. ) ..Chef Michael was like ...haaa...? He tasted it and said that ''It tasted like pancake and looked like pancake...Ok..we will open the Thai style pancake shop here" lol

Then everyone keep tasting my choux...haha....(I really like the taste of my choux today, it tasted better than what i made in the past 2 days)

Another tray of my Paris brest...looks better but still darker than everyone. Chef Michael gave a compliment to my piping and my parline (Su jin and I made Parline together)..He said.."At least it's one thing you did well today'' ..Um...Is it really a compliment? *giggling*


After decoration, it looks good, rite?


Lucky i did only 4 of Paris Brest...cuz don't wanna eat too much..even gave to some friends..still go left in my fridge !

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much for this post! My husband has ridden Paris Brest Paris a few times, as have many friends. My friend saw a "Paris Brest" yesterday, and we were so confused about by it!! So amazing that its name traces back to the ride! Thanks again for the post!