Paris-Brest # French Fridays with Dorie

This Friday the Doristas were assigned to bake Paris-Brest, a big wheel of puff  pastry filled with vanilla pastry cream and caramelized blanched almonds...  With my terrible piping skills and inability to follow specific instructions, I ended up with a rustic looking dessert which barely resembled a wheel.. It was however delicious. 

Paris-Brest... what an unusual name for a dessert.. no ? Apparently this pastry was created in 1891 in honor of the Paris-Brest-Paris cycle race that began that year. It consisted of a big circle of pâte à choux filled with crème pâtissere that was meant to resemble a bicycle wheel. Because of its every-giving high calorific value, this pastry soon became popular among the riders and is now found in pastry shops all over France. 

Since I was baking just for the two of us, I halved the recipe. I have baked/whipped  half recipe of both pâte à choux and crème pâtissere before and wasn't very worried about it. My only concern was that I did not have a piping tip that was big enough. I thought piping out a few extra rings would help and so, did that only to end up with a pastry that looked more like a crown or something such rather than a wheel. Also, in all the hubbub I forgot to sprinkle the almonds on the dough before baking.  Later I tried to make up for it with a garnish of caramelized almonds. I am nottly affected by this adjustment... whatever it be the dessert was divine, specially the crème pâtissere with the hint of praline and my husband simply couldn't let it be until nothing but the crumbs were left ....

Visit French Fridays with Dorie to know what the other members thought about the dessert.

You can find a version of the recipe here . For Dorie's original recipe and more such delicious ones order your copies of Around the French Table from Amazon or from The Book Depository and join us as we cook our way through the book.  

You might also like:

Chocolate éclairs # Baking Partners June Challenge - II

As I mentioned in my previous post, this month Swathi of Zesty South Indian Kitchen, challenged us to bake éclairs and/or gougères. While the gougères baked us happy, I also wanted to try my hands at éclairs. The method used to prepare the éclairs was similar to that of gougères. the only difference was in the fact that an extra helping of sugar was used in the dough for éclairs and one had to keep lowering the oven temperature at regular intervals so that the outside of the shells becomes firm and crispy and the inner core is soft and dry..

In the words of Dorie, "Antonin Carême, the father of modern pastry was the first to pipe Pâte à choux into long fingerlike shapes. Once the pastry was baked he sliced the strips in half, filled them with pastry cream, glazed their tops, thereby creating an enduring classic which he christened éclairs (meaning lightening)." While there are several theories as to why he named them so, Dorie says, "I hold with the camp convinced that the name described the way an éclair is eaten - lightening fast." I quite agree with Dorie on this because the chocolate éclairs that i had made hardly took time to vanish even though mine were not glazed... just filled and piped with some chocolate custard on top...

As in the case of gougères,  these are best consumed within a few hours of baking. however if  you need to prepare a large-ish batch in advance, you can store them by shaping the dough, freezing the mounds on a baking sheet and packing them off in airtight plastic bags soon after they solidify and then bake them straight from the freezer whenever you want to... and if you are like me and choose not to fill some of the pastry shells and serve them later, then you can heat the shells in the oven at 300 degrees F for 10 minutes before filling them with the cream and serving...

now the recipe... For the chocolate filling I followed the recipe from Around the French Table and for the pastry shells I followed the measurements from Alton Brown's recipe and procedure from the recipe that Swathi had mailed to us. I  also used The Joy of Baking for video and reference. 

Chocolate éclairs (makes 12 pieces)

ingredients : for the chocolate filling 1 cup whole milk 2 large egg yolks 4 tbsp sugar 1 1/2 tbsps cornstarch pinch of salt 4 ozs semisweet chocochips, melted (i melted it over double broiler) 1 1/2 tbsps unsalted butter, cut into bits, at room temperature  for the pastry dough  1/2 cup water 1/2 cup (65 grams) all purpose flour 1/2 teaspoon granulated white sugar 1/4 teaspoon salt 4 tablespoons (55 grams) unsalted butter, cut into pieces 1/2 cup (120 ml) water 2 large eggs, lightly beaten    what i did :  for the chocolate filling: first i brought the milk to a boil. meanwhile in a medium saucepan, i whisked the yolks together with the sugar, cornstarch and salt until it was thick and well blended. whisking continuously, i then drizzled 2 tablespoons of the milk to the yolk-sugar blend and still whisking i added the remaining milk to the blend. then putting the pan over medium heat, i whisked the mixture as hard fast as i could and brought it to a boil and whisked non-stop for another couple of minutes before turning off the heat. i then whisked in the melted chocolate and after letting the mixture stand for 5 minutes, i whisked in the bits of butter and stirred the mixture until all of it was well combined and the custard looked smooth and silky. i then scraped out the mixture into a bowl, covered it with a cling wrap and transferred the bowl into the refrigerator until the pastry shells were ready to be filled. for the pasty shells :  first i preheated the oven to 400 degrees F; drew 4 1/2 inch straight lines 1 1/2 inch apart with a chalk on the baking tray and lined it with parchment paper.  i then sifted the flour and sugar together and kept it aside. next i combined the water, butter and salt in a medium sauce pan and placed it over medium low heat and stirred until the butter is melted. once the butter melted i turned the heat up and brought the mixture to a simmer. then removing the pan from the heat i added the flour-sugar the mixture until it acquired a paste-like consistency. then placing the pan over medium high heat i stirred the paste rapidly for a minute until the dough began to pull off from the sides of the pan and looked smooth and glossy. instantly afterwards i transferred the dough to the mixer bowl and mixed the dough on low for 30-45 seconds to release some of the heat and moisture. i then added the eggs to the dough, one at a time, beating continuously until each addition was completely incorporated into the dough before adding the next one. i continued beating the dough for another minute or two till it began to pull away from the sides of the bowl when pulled with the paddle but grabbed back on again. i then increased the speed of the mixer to medium for 15 seconds to make sure that the egg and the yolk get well incorporated in the dough. next stopping the mixer intermittently over the next minute or so i checked if the dough passed the bird's peak test when lifted. that is, if it held its shape and turned down on itself without breaking off when lifted up. once the dough passed the test, i spooned the dough into a piping bag fitted with a 2 inch diameter-ed nozzle and piped out the dough over the image of straight lines that could be seen through the parchment paper. i then transferred the tray to the preheated oven. after 15 minutes i reduced the oven temperature to 350 degree F and continued baking for another 20 minutes. i then reduced the oven temperature further to 325 degrees F and baked for 10 minutes and then reduced the temperature to 300 degrees F and baked for another 5 minutes before turning off the heat. then removing the shells from the oven i let them cool completely before cutting them in half and filling them.

though I had intended to publish this earlier I couldn't. glad that i managed to post it before the linky tool closed... do check out what my fellow bakers have baked.. i think most of them look really professional.. do they ??

Gougères # Baking Partners June Challenge - I

This month Swathi of Zesty South Indian Kitchen, who started the Baking Partners Group, challenged us to bake Chocolate éclairs and/or Gougères. The idea was to learn to make Pâte à choux, a light pastry dough that is used for éclairs, profiteroles, gougères and few other pastry puffs.  I have never tried baking anything along those lines before so i was both intimidated and excited when Swathi mailed us about the challenge.

I had of course tasted éclairs before (and shall tell you more about my éclairs soon) but had no idea as to what gougères were. the images online did not look very impressive, because... frankly speaking they aren't the most handsome nibbles around. but they sure taste good. in fact they taste g-r-e-a-t !! and  an added pinch of crushed pepper and chive does wonders to these already wonderful savory cheese puffs...

Though gougères are made all over France, Dorie says their home is Burgundy, where they are the first thing that you are served in almost any restaurant. how wonderful !! no ?? they are apparently accompanied by a local aperitif, kir. we however enjoyed our feather light nibbles with whatever drink we had at hand... i.e fruit juices of all kinds and thought they tasted great anway... 

As delicious as these cheese puffs are, they are best consumed within a few hours of baking. they tend to loose their crusty charm and acquire a egg-y smell when left overnight. unaware of that, I baked a slightly bigger batch of these only to realize later  the aforementioned fact. however in case you need to prepare a large-ish batch in advance, you can store them by shaping the dough, freezing the mounds on a baking sheet and packing them off in airtight plastic bags soon after they solidify and then bake them straight from the freezer whenever you want to...

the recipe i followed called this French appetizer The French Laundry's Gougeres. a little confused by the name, i did a little google search to learn that the alternative the nomenclature owes to to the fact that these are one of the signature dishes at Thomas Keller's renowned restaurant French Laundry ...

now the recipe as adapted from Bouchon Bakery Book

Gougères   (makes 9 pieces)

ingredients : 1/4 cup + 2 1/4 tsp water 2 1/5 tbsp unsalted butter heaped 1/4 tsp salt 1/8 tsp freshly ground pepper 1/4 cup + 1 tsbp + 3/4 tsp all purpose flour 1 large egg 1 egg yolk 1/2 cup swiss/american cheese grated 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper 1 tsp dried chive    this is what i did to make these puffs... first i preheated the oven to 375 degrees F and lined a baking sheet with parchment paper. next i combined the water, butter, salt and pepper in a saucepan, placed it over medium heat and stirred until the butter melted. Once the butter melted, i increased the heat to medium-high and brought the mixture to a simmer. then switching off the heat i stirred in the flour into the melted-butter mixture using a wooden spoon. i stirred until the mixture acquired a paste-like consistency. then placing it over medium high heat i stirred the paste rapidly for about a minute until the dough pulled off from the sides of the pan and looks smooth and glossy. instantly afterwards i transferred the dough to a mixer bowl and mixed the dough on low speed for 30-45 seconds to release some of the heat and moisture. i then added the egg and the yolk to the dough, one at a time, beating continuously until each addition was completely incorporated into the dough before adding the next one. i continued beating until the dough began to pull away from the sides of the bowl when pulled with the paddle but immediately grabbed back on again. i then increased the speed of the mixer to medium for 15 seconds to make sure that the egg and the yolk get well incorporated in the dough. next stopping the mixer intermittently over the next minute or so i checked if the dough passed the bird's peak test when lifted. that is, if it held its shape and turned down on itself without breaking off when lifted up. once the dough passed the test, i added the cheese, crushed pepper and chives to the mixture and pulsed to incorporate the cheese into the dough. next i scooped out a tablespoon of the dough at a time and dropped them into the lined baking tray, taking care so that each drop is at least 1 1/2 inch away from the other. once all the dough was spooned out, i smoothed the surface of each drop with wet fingers and transferred the tray into the preheated oven. i baked them for 25 minutes until they were golden brown. then switching off the heat i allowed them to stay inside the oven for another 2-3 minutes before taking them out.

I tasted one immediately and thought they were delicious. but according to my husband you don't say enough when you say they are delicious. he LOVED them and thought it is one of the best things he has ever had. he was also slightly disappointed by the fact that i had made so less. he finished all of it within half an hour of returning from work. i believe that these are so light and tasty that he could not resist downing the first batch all by himself. 

here are some links and videos on Gougères from the net that I found quite helpful. Swathi shared them with us over the last month. Thanks a lot Swathi for the links and video and for giving us such a lovely challenge. It was such a treat !!

Before you check out do visit Swathi's page to find out what my fellow bloggers from the  Baking Partners have baked.. Have a great weekend and Happy Father's day !!

p.s : I have also made the eclairs. but to keep things simple i decided to write a separate post on them. expect  éclairs over the span of the day or may to tomorrow morning !!