black sesame paris brest

apple tarte tatin

From Claire Saffitz’s new cookbook, Dessert Person, this was one of the many sensational looking desserts that immediately caught my eye. This version replaces the traditional praline cream (which as Claire notes, can be expensive and hard to find) with black sesame tahini.

What is a paris brest?

Originally created in honor of a bicycle race, the Paris Brest is a French dessert made of choux pastry and filled with cream. Instead of the typical eclair or cream puffs, this is shaped like a circular bicycle wheel. This is also a dessert that would provide competitors in a biking competition with plenty of energy so this is probably best shared with friends.

Where can I find black sesame tahini?

Whole Foods carries a black tahini and if you don’t have any near you, check your local health foods store. It’s also relatively simple to make your own, by toasting and blending black sesame seeds with some neutral oil to achieve a smooth paste. Black sesame offers a nuttier version of regular tahini with an undercurrent of bitter notes which help balance out the sweet creaminess of the pastry cream.

paris brest black sessame cream

Simplifying a dramatic dessert

This is a perfect example of an impressive dessert that can be easily broken down into manageable steps.

Choux Pastry

The choux pastry batter can be prepared and store in the fridge in an airtight container prior to baking. After baking the choux ring, let it cool at room temperature and fill it right before serving

Black Sesame Pastry Cream

Similar to the choux batter, this can also be easily made ahead of time and stored in the refrigerator.

Whipped Cream

I like to do this at the end as it only takes minutes to quickly whip up heavy cream. Keep the heavy cream chilled in the refrigerator so it’s ready to go.

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A few tips:

Choux pastry

  • If you don’t have pastry bags, use a large ziploc bag with a corner snipped off to pipe the round. It doesn’t have to be perfect because the dough will puff and expand dramatically in the oven.

  • As you cook the initial dough on the stove top, err on the side of cooking for an extra few minutes because you want to 1. cook the flour and 2. evaporate excess moisture

  • The exact amount of eggs to achieve the perfect consistency may vary. A few attributes of the perfect consistency: stiff enough to hold its shape when piped, but loose enough to be easily pipable and should leave a v-shaped trail from a spatula or spoon

  • No matter how tempted you may be, do not open the oven door for the first 25 minutes or you risk your choux collapsing. I’ve watched enough Great British Bake Off to witness what happens when you do that.


black sesame paris brest

from Dessert Person by Claire Saffitz

makes one 9 inch round, serves 8

ingredients

pâte à choux:

125g / 1/2 cup whole milk

13g / 1 tablespoon sugar

2g / 1/2 teaspoon salt

100g / 7 tablespoons unsalted butter

125g / 1/2 cup water

130g / 1 cup AP flour

300g / 5 eggs + 1 beaten egg

handful of black sesame seeds

demerara sugar

black sesame pastry cream:

456g / 2 cups whole milk

7g / 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla paste

2g / 1/2 teaspoon salt

100g / 1/2 cup sugar

30g / 1/4 cup cornstarch

80g / 5 large egg yolks

85g / 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, cubed

140g / 2/3 cup black tahini

whipped cream:

312g / 1 1/3 cups heavy cream, whipped

steps

Pate à choux:

Preheat oven to 400 F.

1. Heat the milk and butter: In a small saucepan, combine the milk, sugar, salt, butter and water and bring to a simmer over medium low heat. Stir with a wooden spoon to melt the butter

2. Mix in flour: As the liquids are simmering, dump in the flour all at once. Initially stir slowly to incorporate with the liquid, and begin to stir vigorously after flour is fully mixed in until all the ingredients come together into a soft dough and a light film forms around the bottom and sides of the saucepan. Continue cooking and stirring for a few minutes as the dough forms a smooth ball.

3. Beat in the eggs: Transfer the dough over to a stand mixer with the paddle attachment (or large bowl if mixing by hand) and start mixing in 5 of the eggs one at a time, beating thoroughly after each addition. The dough should start to become smooth and glossy with each egg until you reach the desired consistency where the dough is just loose enough to leave a thin v-shaped trail from the paddle. It may take fewer than 5 eggs to reach this consistency, so stop once you reach this point.

4. Pipe pâte à choux ring: Prepare a half sheet pan with parchment paper with a 9 in circle traced on the back side of the paper. Transfer the dough to a piping bag, snip a 1 inch opening at the end, and pipe the pastry along the traced circle. Continue piping a second ring adjacent and a third ring on top, each starting and ending at a different point.

5. Decorate the ring: Brush the pate a choux ring with the beaten egg and lightly score all around the ring using a fork. Generously sprinkle with black sesame seeds and demerara sugar.

6. Bake the pastry: Bake for 10 minutes at 400 F, before reducing oven temperature to 350F until pastry is puffed and golden brown, for about 45 -55 minutes. Make sure the pastry is thoroughly baked to avoid risk of collapsing. Remove from oven and poke several holes around the side of the pastry to release steam and return to the turned off oven with the door propped open for 10 minutes to help dry the dough out.


Black sesame pastry cream:

1. Heat up the milk: In a heavy bottomed saucepan over medium heat, combine the milk, vanilla, and salt and let mixture slowly come to a simmer, whisking continuously.

2. Mix eggs: As the milk is heating up, vigorously whisk together the egg yolks, sugar, and cornstarch until mixture is very pale, light in texture and thick. Slowly stream half of the hot milk into the egg mixture, tempering the eggs. Mix the egg mixture back in the saucepan with the remaining warm milk, whisking constantly

3. Cook cream: Continuing whisking the milk/egg mixture over medium heat until cream thickens like pastry and coats the back of a spoon (around 3 minutes) and the whisk leaves tracks.

4. Strain cream: Strain the scream through a mesh sieve to remove any solids. Whisk in the cold butter one piece at a time until smooth before stirring in the black tahini until well mixed.

5. Chill: Press a sheet of plastic wrap directly on the surface and refrigerate until cold for a few hours.

Assembling:

1. Prepare the choux ring: Once the pâte à choux is completely cool, use a serrated knife to slice the pastry horizontally to separate the narrow ring of pastry from the wider base below. Carefully remove the upper ring and cut into eighths (to help easily cut the pastry after it is filled). Scoop out and discard some of the doughy innards from the ring base.

2. Fill the pastry: Pipe dollops of the pastry cream into the base, followed by large dollops of the whipped cream on top. You can use either a pastry bag or a large spoon. Gently arrange the pieces of the pastry ring on top of the cream. Serve immediately.


flaky austrian apple strudel (apfelstrudel)

apple tarte tatin

A delicately flaky, well balanced apfelstrudel is the Austrian answer to the all American apple pie.

Austrian pastries don’t get nearly enough love, and I admit I too often turn to French desserts when I think of pastry. In Vienna, there’s a cafe called Demel where I discovered the apfelstrudel amongst a mouth watering selection of cakes. It’s rich enough to satisfy as dessert, but also light enough with a cappuccino for breakfast.

I wanted to make a version of apfelstrudel that stayed true to the original and included the instructions for making the dough below. It can be a little tricking managing the dough, and it took me a few tries before I succeeded. Alternatively, you can use store bought phyllo dough to save time. The texture won’t be the same, but it’ll still be delicious nonetheless.

apple strudel apfelstrudel
apple strudel

A few tips for success:

  • Don’t be afraid to over-knead your dough. The more gluten you form, the easier it will be to stretch it out without ripping the dough later.

  • Feel free to get creative with the filling with various spices, nuts, raisins. And if you don’t like any of the components, feel free to omit!

  • Make sure to use an apple varietal that is firm so that the apples don’t turn to mush while baking.


Austrian Apple Strudel
makes one roll - serves 5

ingredients

for the dough:

1 cup bread flour

pinch of salt

1/2 egg, whisked

1/3 cup warm water

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1/2 teaspoon vinegar

for the filling:

4 medium sized firm apples (e.g. pink lady)

lemon juice & zest (from half a lemon)

1/4 cup toasted and chopped nuts (walnut, hazelnut)

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 cup brown sugar

pinch of salt

1/4 cup raisins (approx. one of the small boxes)

2 tablespoons rum or water

3 tablespoons butter

2/3 cup breadcrumbs

1/4 cup sugar

To finish:

3 tablespoons butter, melted

icing sugar to dust

steps

Preparing the dough

1. Mix dry ingredients: In a medium sized bowl, mix together the flour and salt

2. Add liquids: Mix together the egg, water, oil, and vinegar in with the flour until you have a shaggy dough. On a flat surface, start firmly kneading the dough until it forms a smooth ball, alternating between slapping the dough on the table. The texture should be soft enough to be tacky without sticking to your hands - if it’s too wet, add more flour as you knead. The goal is to activate the gluten so that we can create a very thin stretched out dough later.

3. Rest: Form the dough into a ball, grease lightly with some vegetable oil, and let it it room temperature in a covered bowl for 30 min to let the gluten relax.

Preparing the apples

Preheat oven to 375 F

1. Prepare apples: Peel, core, and cut apples into thin slices or use a mandolin. Toss with lemon juice, lemon zest, nuts, cinnamon, nutmeg, brown sugar and salt. Set aside - the apples will release some of their juice as it sits.

2. Soak raisins: Soak the raisins in rum (if using - use water if you’d rather not use rum) for 10 minutes. Mix with apples. Optional.

3. Toast breadcrumbs: Melt the butter in a small saucepan on low heat. Mix in the breadcrumbs until well incorporated - the breadcrumbs should look sandy. Continue cooking on low, stirring the breadcrumbs until they are lightly toasted. Keep a close eye on the breadcrumbs, they burn easily. Let cool, and mix with sugar.

Putting it all together

1. Stretch out the dough: Clear out plenty of counter space as the dough can get very large. Lay out a clean tablecloth or dish towel and lightly dust with flour. Start by rolling out the dough with a rolling pin. Once it is relatively rolled out, start stretching the dough out with your hands, taking care to avoid any rips. Slip your hands underneath, and with the dough over your knuckles and the assistance of gravity, gently stretch out the dough like you would with a pizza. Take care to stretch out the edges, as the middle tends to stretch out more easily. Dust with flour to prevent dough from sticking to itself as it becomes more stretched out. You should continue until the dough is thin enough to see through it. Trim off any edges that are thicker.

6. Arrange apples: At one end of the stretched out dough, sprinkle half the breadcrumbs, leaving enough space around the edges to initially cover half the apples (about an inch around the sides, and 2 inches at the front). Leave any of the excess liquid that has accumulated in the bowl. Arrange the apples on top of the breadcrumbs in a log-like shape, and top with the rest of the breadcrumbs.

7. Butter her up: Brush the 3 tablespoons melted butter carefully over the uncovered dough. Be gentle as the dough can be quite thin in areas. Keep the leftover butter to brush at the end.

8. Roll up the strudel: Wrap the edges of the dough around the short ends over the apple mound. With the help of the kitchen towel, roll the log down the remaining dough. Apply some pressure to ensure a snug log. Transfer over to a baking sheet lined with parchment with the seam side down. Generously brush the top with the remaining butter.

9. Bake: Bake the strudel for 30-40 minutes, until the crust is golden brown. If you have some extra melted butter left, feel free to give it an extra brush of butter for extra crispiness after the first 15 minutes.

10. To serve: Let the strudel cool for 20 minutes before serving. Cut into 4-5 servings, and generously sprinkle with icing sugar. Serve with some whipped cream or creme fraiche. Enjoy!