Paris Brest with Praline Cream, Chocolate Meringues, and some Parisian Touches

I took down my Valentine's decor last weekend and had all good intentions of putting of St Patty's. But then I remembered that I had a party this week. I decided I didn't want any holiday decor up, so I could just do the table any old way I wanted at that moment.

I had gotten some adorable paper goods when in Paris last May (see the week's adventures under the label Paris Trip ). I was saving them for the right moment, and it was now. I decided to make some French desserts, and decorate with my napkins and box of cupcake supplies I got on Rue St Antoine. I rarely make cupcakes- I just don't care for them for whatever reason- so I decided to turn the paper cups upside down and punch the little picks through the top as my nameplace holders. I thought they were so sweet!

There are little cats and dogs and boys and girls with dapper bows and crepe paper puffs in their hats.

I continued the color theme with a vintage tablecloth and mismatched vintage blue transferware plates.

I brought down graniteware from the top of my cabinets to hold the desserts. In Paris the Flea Markets had lots of floral enameled wares. I went intending to get a salt or a matchbox to bring home. I saw many I loved, and for decent prices, but I had lots of gifts to get and not enough room in the suitcase!

My first dessert is one that I had made before with great success. I first made this for my homeschool biology class as a snack. I had a girl who was gluten intolerant, and it was my first time to ever have to think outside the box on our sweets.

These are Chocolate Kiss Meringues and I have the recipe HERE. It is just a simple meringue mixture, then you fold in grated chocolate and pipe it around Hershey's kisses.They are triple chocolate if you dust them with cocoa, but I didn't this time.

A crackly-chewy crust with a heart of softened milk chocolate. Yes, YUUUMM!

Then I decided to make Paris Brest. The pastry is named after the bicycle race, and so the dough is piped into circles like tires. I can't even just settle on a recipe; I have to examine every possibility. So out came seven French cookbooks to try to help me decide what I wanted. This is a normal procedure. Do I get anal about my baking? Hmmm, quite possibly ;). And every single one had a different baking time and temperature...

I decide I wanted to do a hard caramel top as in the book, So French, So Sweet. But his filling was a Nutella Chocolate and I wanted something different. So I came to my French Patisserie book and landed on the vanilla bean creme patisserie filling with praline powder folded in for crunch. The sheet above is my cooling praline (hard crack caramel) to be broken into pieces and then pounded into powder with a rolling pin. I made the choux pastry from Bouche, because they state that they make it a bit thicker for the Paris Brest, most of the other recipes were for basic cream puffs and said it could then be used for eclairs or Paris Brest. I decided I wanted the thicker. But I was disappointed because Bouche went all American on their filling and added peanut butter! That's generally something the French sneer at, and not a favorite baking flavor for me at all.

I made the creme patisserie recipe from French Gourmet. It is just like making a custard filling for pie, but you chill it and then later pipe it. I was going to chill it and add the crushed praline. Look at all those vanilla bean seeds in the cream!

The choux pastry dough turned out just like the eclair dough I have made multiple times before. Dry, light, and filled with the signature air holes that get filled with cream.

Here are the tops dipped in the sugar syrup caramel. It dries to a hard crack. Can you see the sugar strands that have draped and hardened? One day I am going to make this and twirl the threads into beautiful clouds of spun sugar that are used to decorate desserts. I have pictures to show how to do it in Jacques Pepin's La Technique. But not today...

I still had supper to make for the family and then clean up after. Then it was on to filling the Paris Brest, setting the table for the party, and putting out all the goodies before folks showed up.

The creme patt did not thicken the way that my other recipes have. The coffee filling for my eclairs is just amazing and the perfect consistency. I must make a note not to use this one particular one again. I did manage to pipe it into the pastry, but it was meant to be firm enough to make swirls and stand up. The French would be so disappointed in my homely little pastries! It's not enough to taste good, they have to be beautiful also. The meringues were a big hit, with none left. The Paris Brest were not as happy. Yes, they were good in all the components, but they were not great. When I did the Saint Honore for my pop's birthday, the similar flavor combination was incredible. Wait, did I ever even tell you about the French feast I made for his birthday? Rabbit Cassolet, Leg of Lamb, Duck Confit, and St Honore. It was a memorable occasion!

 It was a successful first attempt at St Honore.  Maybe you remember that is was my all-time favorite dessert that I ate while in Paris, see HERE, and I had been dreaming of it. There are not things like that here, so I was forced to make them myself. They were very, very good. A bit clunky looking, but I was so happy with the tastes and textures.

 So, no more Paris Brest, but definitely more using the choux pastry for delicious coffee cream filled eclairs, see HERE...and more St. Honore! All in all a lovely night, and a chance to try something new that had been my my list of "to-makes" ;) What kind of things do you have on your wish list to make or to eat, Dear Reader?