How to make
Baking paper with two circles drawn with d - 8″ (20 cm). Width of the circles - 1″ (2.5 cm). Piping bag - wide tip. Oven - 390°F (200°C).
Place a thick-bottomed pot on a medium heat and add the diced butter along with a teaspoon of sugar and pour water and milk.
Only water can be used, but milk adds a richer taste. Pour the flour + salt all at once and stir vigorously with a wooden spatula, until a nice ball of dough is formed, which should be well separated from the sides of the pot. Stir for about 3 minutes.
Remove it from the heat and place it in the mixer bowl, beat on low speed to cool and add the lightly beaten eggs one at a time, by beating after each one. Work with the mixer, until a smooth and shiny dough is obtained, which slides off the spatula slowly like lava. It is poured into a piping bag and it is piped out into a circle, then another one stuck next to the first circle and finally pipe out once more in a line above the two circles and down the center.
The egg is beaten with a wire whisk + the salt and gently spread with a brush, but to slightly smooth out the rings. Sprinkle chopped almonds.
Bake first at 390°F (200°C) for 15 minutes and then at 360°F (180°C) for about 40-45 minutes, by leaving the oven open during baking. After it is ready, the cake is left in the oven with the door slightly open for about 30 minutes, until it is completely dry. Take it out and cool it on a wire rack.
Cream: Pour the cold cream into the bowl of the mixer, beat it lightly on medium speed and add the vanilla extract and the sugar and beat it on high speed, until it becomes fluffy. The whipped cream should be well beaten.
The shell of the Choux eclair is cut with a long and serrated knife very carefully through the middle, by carefully removing any moist pieces of dough. The cream is placed in a piping bag and piped out richly, by forming figures of eight. Cover it. Lightly sprinkle powdered sugar. Keep it in the refrigerator.
If you want the eclair cake to be crunchy, it is served immediately.
Paris Brest Choux Pastry is ready.
Note: I used another cream from:
4 egg yolks, 600 ml hot milk, 3 tbsp.of flour, 1 tsp. of ordinary starch, vanilla extract and a pinch of salt, 1/2 cup of granulated sugar, 75 g butter
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Croquant: 1 cup of sugar is melted, until a caramel is obtained. 1/2 cup of almonds are placed onto baking paper. The hot caramel is poured over them. Cool completely, break and pass it through a blender and blend it into fine sand.
The milk is boiled. Mix the dry ingredients with a wire whisk, add the egg yolks and a little of the milk into a paste and add the hot milk in a very thin stream while continuously beating. Place it back onto the stove and stir vigorously, until the cream thickens. Cover with foil and cool completely.
With a mixer, add the butter piece by piece and beat, until a nice smooth cream is obtained and with a spatula add the croquant. Mix carefully. The two products must be very well chilled, otherwise they may lump up. Leave it to set and then pipe it out over the cake.
Note: I made the second cream, but I didn't wait long enough for the butter to set and I didn't manage to pipe it out into figure eights very well.
I will attach photos that will show how I drew the circles and what my dough is like. If you are making this large eclair, feel free to work with the piping bag and leave no empty spaces. Fill with dough.
I will post an interesting historical reference for this type of Paris-Brest Chox eclair, because it is interesting to read how its creation began.
Every four years, a 1.200 km cycling race is held in France, starting from Paris to Brest and back. Also known as PBP. It is the most famous race that dates back to 1891 and is one of the oldest in the series. During this large-scale event for that time and to this day, a confectioner in honor of the competition decided to make a pastry in the shape of a cycling circle - Chox or more precisely a cycling wheel. This pastry is covered with almonds and filled with flavored cream.
For the French in those years, it was an unique pastry, because its preparation first began on the stove and then ended with baking in an oven. This is the beginning of the eclair, later it took another form and what not.
We have all already made their wonderful eclairs and I think that this form will not be difficult for any of you. The important thing to know, as with croissants, is that the dough should be smooth in texture and when the eggs are added, it should become glossy and fall heavily and slowly.
The second important thing, but not the least, that it is first baked at high degrees, so that the dough has a chance to rise and then at lower degrees, so that the outside of the shell has a chance to remain hard and the inside of the dough to dry out. That way a nice cavity is formed, so that it will not soften and flatten after removing it from the oven.
