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Paris Brest

I had never heard of a paris brest until I made it in class. I don’t think I would make any changes to the initial recipe. Personally I could have worked on keeping my circles more uniform when piping out my circles with the pate a choux. I found paris brests to be enjoyable and not to heavy in flavor. 

How to Make Paris Brest: 

To start paris brests you will need to make pate a choux and pipe it with an 825  star tip into a circle using a #6 circle cutter as a template, egg wash the tops and sprinkle with toasted hazelnuts before baking. Bake and let cool completely before cutting and filling. 

Read about pate a choux here: https://pastryposts.tumblr.com/post/625667551864733696/pate-a-choux 

Next you will need to make your filling which is a praline mousseline. To make a praline mousseline you’ll need to start with a pastry cream, start by heating milk and a vanilla bean until it reaches a boil. Then temper the milk with whisked egg yolks, sugar, and cornstarch. Cook that mixture until it reaches a boil and let it boil for at least 30 seconds. Then you can transfer it to a clean bag or container and chill it in an ice bath . 

Once your pastry cream is chilled fully you can begin cream room temperature butter in a mixer with a whip attachment. Once the butter is fully smooth and soft you can add praline paste and continue to whip it until it is fully combined and smooth. Then you should pull out your pastry cream and whisk it to smooth it and warm it up slightly. Begin adding pastry cream in three additions waiting until fully combined to add next addition. Once all of the pastry cream is in, transfer praline mousseline to a piping bag fitted with an 823 star tip. Store piping bag in fridge until ready to fill paris brest. 

Now that all of the components are made you can trim off a 1/3 of the top of the pate a choux shell. Using a stick or the end of a thermometer clear out the bottom to make room for the filling. Using your praline mousseline pipe tall rosettes around the inside of the bottom layer. Sprinkle the rosettes with chopped hazelnuts and a light sprinkle of salt. Replace the top and dust lightly with powdered sugar. 

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Cream Puffs

Cream puffs are something I am very familiar with. Actually my dad used to make cream puffs around Christmas time every year. I don’t know of anything that I would add to the base recipe of this cream puff bedsides maybe some kind of crunch factor like a toasted crumble or some toasted nuts. Just to add a bit of a different texture. Me personally what I could have done better was to make my cream puffs a little bit bigger and to have added some fruit to the outside to show what was in the inside. 

How to Make Cream Puffs: 

To start your cream puffs you will need to make a pate a chux you can read about that here: https://pastryposts.tumblr.com/post/625667551864733696/pate-a-choux 

For cream puffs you should make a template by tracing the outside of a #3 circle cutter onto parchment. To pipe the them out use a piping bag fitted with an 803 round tip pipe at a 90 ° angle straight up and down until you reach the edge of the circle. You can top the pate a chux with some craquelin dough if you prefer or leave them plain. Bake your cream puffs and let them cool completely before filling and decorating. 

Read about craquelin dough here: https://pastryposts.tumblr.com/post/625671998140481536/craquelin-dough

For my filling I made a Creme Parisenne with white chocolate. To make creme parisenne you need to start by blooming some gelatin in ice water. Then heat some sugar, salt, and heavy cream in a pot until it is just before boiling. Mix in the bloomed gelatin, then pour the cream mixture over chopped up white chocolate and emulsify. Then add some more cream and let the mixture chill over night in the fridge. The next day pull out the cream mixture and whip it until it forms stiff peaks. Put the creme parisenne into a piping bag fitted with an 825 star tip and keep it cold until you are ready to fill your cream puffs. 

Now you are ready to finish your cream puffs, start by cutting them in half to make a bowl shape on the bottom half. using a stick or the end of a thermometer clean out the center to make room for the filling. Place some fruit, coulis, or jam into the bottom (I used some portioned oranges), then pipe the creme parisenne in a rosette shape making sure to cover the edge of the cream puff. Trim the top halves of the cream puffs to make a cleaner circle and place them on top of the creme parisenne. Lastly add some decorations to the outside like micro greens, edible flowers, or fruit. Personally I just used some orange edible flowers. 

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Craquelin Dough

Craquelin is a dough that can be rolled out really thin and placed onto cream puffs and eclairs before baking to add a crackled texture to the finished baked product.

How to Make Craquelin Dough : 

To make craquelin you will need a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and basically mix together: butter, sugar, bread flour, almond flour, kosher salt, and food dye of your choice. 

Roll out the dough to an 1/8″ thick and cut out disks or rectangles depending on the final product. Store covered in the freezer for multiple uses. 

***You can substitute the almond flour with hazelnut flour to make a hazelnut dough*** 

*** By adding cocoa powder to the dough before mixing you can make a chocolate craquelin***  

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History of Eclairs

Eclairs are a classic french pastry made with a base of pate a choux, it is then filled typically with a cream based filling and topped with a fondant based glaze. Originally Eclairs where referred to as petite duchesse in France and the word Eclair came around in the 1860s. The first documentation of Eclairs in english writing was in 1861 in a vanity fair article. In french the word eclair means lightning which has no notable connection the pastry itself.  It is said to have been created by the french pastry chef Antonin Carême. Who is also responsible for the creation of the Napoleon cake.The most popular form of eclair would be a chocolate eclair which is pate a choux filled with either chocolate custard or classic pastry cream. It is then topped with a chocolate fondant glaze. 

Alfaro, Danilo. “What Exactly Is an Éclair?” The Spruce Eats, 24 July 2019, www.thespruceeats.com/what-is-an-eclair-995652.

Read More about pate a choux here: https://pastryposts.tumblr.com/post/625667551864733696/pate-a-choux

Read more about eclairs here: https://pastryposts.tumblr.com/post/625671421379674112/eclairs

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Eclairs

Eclairs are something I am familiar with I had personally never made them but I have had them quite a few times. I don’t have any critiques of what would make this recipe better in general, but for me personally I could have done a few things better. #1 I should have made sure my chocolate ganache was a bit warmer before dipping my eclairs to prevent the ridge forming in the center. The other thing that I could have done better would have been being a little bit lighter when pipping the white chocolate stripes on the top. 

How to Make Eclairs: 

The first thing you will need to do when making eclairs is to make pate a choux and pipe it out into 4 1/2″ sticks using a french star tip, egg wash the tops and bake them off. You can read more about how to make pate a choux here: https://pastryposts.tumblr.com/post/625667551864733696/pate-a-choux

Next you will need to make your filling for my eclairs my filling is a classic pastry cream. To make pastry cream you will need to heat milk, sugar, and a vanilla bean in a pot until it is scalding. Once it is scalding you will want to  temper the milk mixture with whisked egg yolks, sugar, and cornstarch. Then return the entire mixture to the burner and cook until the mixture boils for 30 seconds. When it has boiled you should add a little bit of butter. lastly when the butter is fully melted you can place the pastry cream into a clean container or bag and let it chill in an ice bath. When you are ready to finish the eclairs you will need the pastry cream in a piping bag with an 801 circle tip. 

And lastly before you can put the eclairs together you will need to make a chocolate ganache for the top of the eclair. To make a chocolate ganache you simply boil cream and invert sugar, add chopped up chocolate and emulsify it. Then cool the mixture to 95 °F and add a little bit of butter. Pour ganache into a metal mixing bowl and cool the ganache to around 80 ° F and you are ready to put your eclairs together. 

Taking you cooled eclair using a small circular tip (I used an 800 round tip) drill a hole on both ends of the eclair. Then using a small stick or end of a thermometer twist it around to clear out the inside. Using one finger to cover the hole on one side fill the eclair with the pastry cream (doing this to both sides). The eclair should feel heavy once it is filled and if a bit of pastry cream comes out of one of the ends just wipe it gently with a paper towel. Now that it is filled you can dip it into the chocolate ganache. Make sure that your ganache is still fluid but not to fluid that it will dip all over the sides of you eclair. If it it to cool you can heat the ganache over a hot water bath. Holding onto the bottom of the eclair you can dip the top into the ganache doing a slight rocking motion pull the eclair of the ganache and set it aside to harden. You can top the eclairs with what ever style of decor you would like but I went for some simple white chocolate stripes that I did with some melted white chocolate and a parchment piping bag. 

Read more about the history of eclairs here: https://pastryposts.tumblr.com/post/625671459198599168/history-of-eclairs

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Pate a Choux

Pate a choux is another form of pastry dough that is used as a base for a lot of pastries both sweet and savory. Some of the most recognizable sweet pastries made with pate a choux would be, cream puffs and eclairs. But if you in the mood for something savory you might recognize gougères. Which is made by folding Gruyere cheese, salt, and a little bit of black pepper into choux dough and baking it. 

How to Make Pate a Choux: 

Making pate a choux is a two stage process, The first step is completed on the stove and the second is completed with a stand mixer. 

To start you will need to sift together some bread flour and cake flour and set it off to the side. Then in a medium pot begin by melting your butter, once the butter is almost completely melted add milk, water, invert sugar, and salt. Bring that mixture to a boil. Now that the mixture is boiling you can remove the pot from the heat and add your flours using a whisk, whisk the mixture together make sure to remove all lumps. Switching to a wooden spoon place the pot back onto the stove, and heat the mixture until the starches are gelatinized and there is a slight film on the bottom of pot. The mixture should reach about 160 °F, make sure to keep stirring the mixture with a wooden spoon until it reaches this point. 

Now that the dough is formed you can transfer it from the pot to the bowl of a mixer fitted with a paddle. Begin mixing the dough so that it cools slightly to about 140  °F or lower. Then you can begin adding eggs one at a time mixing completely before adding the next. Scrape the bowl down every once in a while it should be about six eggs. You will know that the dough is ready when it is slightly flowy and flows down the paddle without breaking off and leaving gaps. 

Once the dough is done it can be transferred into a piping bag and piped into multiple delicious pastries. 

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Bande De Fruit

I had never heard of a bande de fruit but I have seen many things similar to it such as a generic fruit tart made with pie dough. Personally I don’t know of anything that would make it a better recipe because, with all of the fruit it is very refreshing and not to sweet. Its a very light and enjoyable treat. For me personally what I could have done better would probably have been checking the oven a bit more frequently to make sure the pan was being rotated so that my shell baked evenly. 

How to Make a Bande De Fruit: 

The first thing that you will need to make a bande de fruit would be puff pastry rolled out to 1/8″ thick and cut into an 11″ x 7″ rectangle. For this recipe I used a block dough, you can read about puff pastry here: https://pastryposts.tumblr.com/post/625577178342604800/puff-pastry-dough 

The other thing you will need is a little bit of pastry cream. To make pastry cream you will need to heat milk, sugar, and a vanilla bean in a pot until it is scalding. Once it is scalding you will want to  temper the milk mixture with whisked egg yolks, sugar, and cornstarch. Then return the entire mixture to the burner and cook until the mixture boils for 30 seconds. When it has boiled you should add a little bit of butter. lastly when the butter is fully melted you can place the pastry cream into a clean container or bag and let it chill in an ice bath. 

Now that all of that is prepared you can begin to construct your bande de fruit. To make the shell use an 11″ x 7″ rectangle and trim 1″ off of each long edge to make the railings. Brush egg wash along the two long edges of the main body  and attach the railings. Dock the bottom layer with a fork and cut the desired pattern into the railings using an exacto blade, being careful to not cut through fully. Trim the edges of the dough to make sure all of your edges are nice and clean. Now chill your dough in the freezer for 10- 20 minutes before baking. Bake shell until golden brown rotating the pan and pressing down on the dough with an offset  occasionally to keep the bake even. Let the shell cool completely before filling. 

Once the shell is cooled you can start by spreading a thin layer of pastry cream across the center. Then you can layer the top with sliced fruit and berries in the pattern that you desire making sure to cover the pastry cream fully. When all of the fruit is on you should glaze the bande de fruit with a glaze made out of equal parts harmony glaze and simple syrup ( I did 40g harmony glaze and 40g simple syrup). 

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Phitivier

I had never heard of phitivier before this class so it was interesting to make because i’d never made a pastry with an almond cream based filling. What would have made this better in general for me would be a little more texture adding ingredients in the filling, like the chocolate that we added. It helped to give the filling a better mouth feel in my opinion. Personally what I could do better would to be lighter when carving into the top. I believe that would have made it look slightly less messy. But overall it was a nice enjoyable pastry that’s flavor reminds me of Easter candy.

How To Make Phitivier: 

To start this pastry you will need some two 8″ circles of puff pastry dough rolled out to an 1/8″ thick. For this recipe I used a Block dough and you can read about puff pastry here: https://pastryposts.tumblr.com/post/625577178342604800/puff-pastry-dough

You will also need some almond cream, to make it you will just need to cream together: butter, sugar, eggs, heavy cream, vanilla extract, dark rum, and some almond flour 

And the last “special ingredient” that you will need is a little bit of pastry cream. To make pastry cream you need to: Heat some milk, vanilla bean, and sugar until it is scalding. Remove it from the heat and temper that milk mixture with whisked together egg yolks, cornstarch, and sugar. Returning it to the heat cook the mixture until it has boiled for at least 30 seconds. At that point you can remove it from the heat and whisk in some butter. Transfer you pastry cream into a clean bowl or bag and chill it in an ice bath. 

To make the filling: place the almond cream and a little bit or pastry cream into a mixing bowl add chopped chocolate, orange zest and a little bit of cake flour. Then mix it together until its fully combined. 

Putting it Together: 

Taking your two 8″ circles pick the slightly thicker half to be the top and set it aside. On the bottom half lightly brush egg wash along the edge of the dough. Then spread a super thin layer of orange marmalade into the center of the circle. Taking you filling place it all into the center of the orange marmalade. With a small offset spatula smooth it out and shape the filling into a circular mound. Making sure to keep it within the egg wash circle. Now you can add the top disk of dough starting from the center of the dough with your hands push down lightly to make sure there are no folds or air gaps. Push down on the edges to seal, then taking a small round cutter press down on the edge very lightly to mark the scalloped  edge. Place the dough into the freezer for at least ten minutes (personally I froze mine overnight). 

Once it is nice and frozen and ready to be carved you can remove it from the freezer and get a 6″ circle (you can use a cake board or a paper plate). Start by cutting a small hole into the center of the dough to release any trapped steam while baking. Then holding the circle in one hand and an exacto blade in the other; trace around the circular edge onto the dough being careful not to cut through fully. Then an inch from the bottom cut down an inch in the oposite direction (reference picture for what the scoring should look like). Once the top is fully scored you can then take your exacto blade and follow the pattern you marked earlier using a small round cutter to scallop the edge of the dough. Then carve any desired pattern into the edge. 

Bake at 385 ° F bottom heat and 430 ° F top heat for 35- 45 min. After baking brush phitivier with simple syrup while still hot. 

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Jalousies

Jalousies are a classic pastry that is similar to a chausson aux pommes in the fact that it’s base is puff pastry and it is traditionally filled with a fruit. I had not heard of a Jalousies until taking this Classic Pastry course but now that I know what it is I have seen things very similar to it. What would make this product better for me would be a nice bright berry filling to add a pop of color to the final product. But personally what would make it better would be if I had kept the dough colder so that when I cut the strips into the top it would not have stuck together and made my edges look quite as bad. I personally enjoyed the jalousies because they are very light and the fruit inside it makes it almost refreshingly sweet. 

How To Make Jalousies:

The first thing you will need to make a jalousie would be puff pastry rolled out to an 1/8″ thick and then cut into an 11″ x 9″ rectangle for this recipe I used a blitz dough, You can read about puff pastry here: https://pastryposts.tumblr.com/post/625577178342604800/puff-pastry-dough 

You will also need frangipane also known as almond cream. To make this you will just need to cream together butter, sugar, eggs, heavy cream, vanilla extract, a dark rum, and some almond flour in a mixer. 

Once you have an 11″ x 9″  rectangle you will need to fold it in half long ways and cut it so that you have two equal rectangles. Pick one to be the top and set it aside into the freezer to stay cold. On the bottom layer brush egg wash along the edges, and  spread a thin layer of frangipane onto the middle of the pastry. Then arrange your thinly sliced fruit on top of the frangipane in the center (For mine I used apple and pear). 

Once the bottom layer is finished you will need to pull  the top layer out of the freezer. Fold the dough in half length wise with out sealing the edge and with a pastry wheel cut strips into the dough from the folded end not going all the way to the end. Once it’s all cut you can unfold the dough and place it over the top of the bottom layer sealing the edges together. You can then trim the edges with a pastry wheel to make sure the edges are nice and clean. 

Brush the top of the dough with heavy cream and sprinkle it with granulated sugar before baking. Bake at 375 °F - 425 °F until golden brown approximately 25 minutes. Once it is baked let the Jalousie cool and then slice it into six pieces using a serrated knife. Dust powdered sugar onto half of the slice and place them into flattened muffin cups. 

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Chasson Aux Pommes

Also known as apple turnovers, I personally had not heard of these referred to by there french name but I did know what an apple turnover was. Using the recipe that I used I personally believe that adding some warm flavored spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, or cardamom to the apple filling would have made them a bit better tasting. A way that I myself could have made them better as well was to be a little bit lighter in my marking on the top as to not cut as deep, which would have made the pattern on the top look slightly better. Also if I would have continued my marking of the pattern a little bit closer to the edge I think it would have looked nicer. 

How to Make Chasson Aux Pommes: 

To make chasson aux pommes you will need to start with a puff pastry which you can read about here:  https://pastryposts.tumblr.com/post/625577178342604800/puff-pastry-dough  

For this recipe I used a blitz dough. Using the puff pastry dough you will need to roll it out to an 1/8″ thick, and cut out four 6″ circles, chill them on a half sheet pan lined with parchment. Then prepare your filling. Peel and core your apples cutting them into 1/2″ cubes, and toss them in sugar, add salt and vanilla bean. In a small pan begin melting some butter, once the butter is slightly melted add the apple mixture and cook until the apples release a little bit of juice and all of the sugar has dissolved. Remove the filling from the heat and cool it. This filling can be made a head of time as well. Once the filling is completely cooled drain the liquid from the apples and pull your puff pastry disks out of the fridge. You’ll need to gently roll the dough into slight ovals and egg wash a half moon shape on one half of the dough. Fill the center with apples and fold over  the other half sealing dough on the egg wash. Flip over dough placing the rounded side of the dough onto the sheet pan, then egg wash the top. Once all of them are filled place them into the freezer for ten minutes. Then pull them out to carve the desired pattern into the top making sure to include at least one hole for steam to escape. Bake in a 385 ° F- 425 ° F oven for 12 minute or until golden brown. While the chasson aux pommes are still hot, brush them with simple syrup to give them a nice shine. 

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Puff Pastry Dough

Puff pastry dough is a well known dough that is the base to multiple classic pastries. It can be made in two ways; the blitz method and the block method. While the blitz method is much quicker it doesn’t give as nice of layers as the block method. So which is better? It’s up to your preference, personally I prefer the block method because it is much faster and takes less labor and works almost exactly like block dough. 

The Block Method: 

Making puff pastry with the block method is a four step process. The first step is to make the dough in a mixer using water, white vinegar, bread flour, pastry flour, salt, and a small amount of butter. Once your dough is mixed you will need to roll it out to a 5″x 5″ square and chill it. Then make a butter block, the easiest way to do this I’ve learned is to let your butter sit out and soften slightly. Then put it into a mixer bowl with a paddle on the lowest speed until there are no more butter lumps. Then trace out the size of butter block you would like onto parchment paper. Place the butter onto the parchment and fold the paper to cover the butter then using a rolling pin roll the butter to fit the size you prefer, personally my block was 6″ x 6″. The next step in the block method is to lock in your butter, so you’ll need to roll out your dough to be three inches bigger then your butter block (Mine I rolled out to 9″ x 9″). Then place your butter on the dough so that it is a diamond on the dough, taking the corners of the dough pull them to the center to make an envelope shape make sure to seal the seams. Lastly you will need to laminate the dough. For this dough I rolled it out do 9″ x 17″ for each fold. To laminate this dough you will need to follow this pattern : 

3 fold - rest 30- 40 min.

4 fold- rest 30- 40 min. 

3 fold- rest 30- 40 min. 

4 fold- rest overnight 

The Blitz Method: 

To make dough using the blitz method it is only two steps: making the dough and laminating. To toss butter (that is cut into chunks) in a bowl of bread flour then roll the butter out until it is in wide flat pieces. Once the butter is flat you can place the flour and butter back into the bowl, add the water and salt and mix it with a bowl scraper to form a dough. Now that the dough is formed you can go right into laminating. For this dough I rolled it out to 7″ x 13″ for each fold, and followed this pattern: 

3 fold- no resting go straight into the next fold

4 fold- rest 30- 40 min. 

3 fold- rest 30- 40 min. 

4 fold- rest over night

*** When resting dough make sure to wrap it and label what time it was folded then place it into the fridge***

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Get To Know Me!

Hello! 

My names Sydney! I am baking and pastry student at Johnson & Wales university in Providence. I initially became interested in going to JWU because a lot of people from my high school culinary program talked about going, but once I looked into it and took my first tour it felt like the right place for me. It was partially because I thought the campus was nice, and partially because I felt like I knew very little about baking and pastry even with past work experiences and I thought JWU could teach me the most. 

One of the pastry chefs that really inspire me would be Sara Aasum Hultburg, who was the “Pastry Chef of the Year” in 2014. I just find everything she does to just be gorgeous. 

My future goal is to one day open up a coffee shop/ tea shop that sells fresh baked goods. But before that I hope to travel some more and gain experience from multiple different areas in the world.