Paris-Brest

Created by pastry chef Louis Durand at his shop in Maisons-Laffitte in 1910, at the request of race organiser Pierre Giffard, to celebrate the annual Paris–Brest–Paris bicycle race. The creation that followed became one of the most iconic preparations in the French pastry canon and remains on the menus of classically oriented patisseries worldwide.

A ring of choux pastry (Entry 18) piped into a circle, baked until hollow and dry, split horizontally, and filled with a praline-flavoured pastry cream or mousseline — the classical preparation created in 1910 to celebrate the Paris–Brest bicycle race. The wheel shape represents the bicycle wheel; the praline cream represents... indulgence. Paris-Brest is one of the most celebrated of all classical French pastry preparations because it combines the extraordinary texture of correctly made choux (crisp shell, hollow interior) with the deep, hazelnut-caramel flavour of praline in a preparation whose visual impact is considerable.

Praline's flavour is among the most complex in the pastry kitchen — it is Maillard caramelisation (from the sugar) combined with the aromatic compounds of toasted nuts (pyrazines from roasted hazelnut — the same compound family as roasted coffee). As Segnit notes, hazelnut and chocolate is the most commercially successful flavour combination in confectionery (Nutella, Ferrero Rocher) because both carry the same roasted-Maillard aromatic register — but in Paris-Brest, the praline operates without chocolate, allowing the hazelnut's native complexity to dominate.