Paris-Brest

Paris-Brest was created in 1910 by pastry chef Louis Durand at his shop in Maisons-Laffitte, a town on the route of the Paris-Brest-Paris bicycle race (Paris to Brest in Brittany and back, 1200km). The race had been running since 1891. Durand made the cake at the request of the race organizer Pierre Giffard, and shaped the choux as a wheel. The Durand family shop continues to make the cake to its original recipe. Some Parisian pâtisseries make a small individual version called petit Paris-Brest.

1910, Louis Durand's shop in Maisons-Laffitte, on the route of the 1200km Paris-Brest-Paris cycling race (running since 1891). Wheel-shaped on purpose. Mousseline cream — butter creamed first, cold pastry cream added spoon by spoon — is the difference; mismatched temperatures break the emulsion.

First: a thin shell of crisp choux dusted with sugar and almonds; under it a moist eggy interior with give. Then a deep pipe of mousseline that tastes like roasted hazelnuts dissolved in butter — the praline reads as nutty caramel before the sweet. Cream is fluffy yet dense, room temperature ideal. The ring should snap, not bend; if the choux is leathery, it was underbaked. A whole slice is roughly 7cm tall and impossible to eat without leaning forward.

Mousseline cream is the difference between a great Paris-Brest and a mediocre one. It is butter-creamed-with-pastry-cream, NOT pastry-cream-with-melted-butter. The butter must be soft (~20°C) and beaten to a pale fluff first; the cold pastry cream is then added spoon by spoon at the same temperature. Mismatched temperatures cause emulsion break — the cream looks curdled and weeps fat. Praline paste is added last because nut oils break weak emulsions. A correctly made mousseline holds piped peaks at room temperature for hours.