Paris-New York
6.2.16
A guilty pleasure of mine is buying cookbooks. Mainly because I like to drool over the pictures. Because let’s face it, you can easily find so and so’s recipe for a mind blowing hummus somewhere on the Internet. So I obviously don’t buy them for the recipes. But oh how I adore flipping through page after glossy page of artfully arranged pastries and desserts. It’s like walking through an art gallery to me. However, on the rare occasion that I actually attempt to bake a recipe from a cookbook, I like to use these “food porn” photos as a guide. You’d be surprised what clues you can gleam from them, aside from what the finished product looks like ideally.
So this week I tackled Dominque Ansel’s Paris-New York. It’s a take on the classic Paris-Brest pastry, a choux pastry ring filled with praline cream and topped with almonds. Ansel’s version uses peanut butter and dark chocolate fillings to mimic a Reeses Cup, but in a more grown up, sophisticated way.
As experienced as I am, I’m not a pastry master like Dominque Ansel. So I took a few liberties with the recipe and made my own modifications to preserve my sanity. His version is topped with caramel fondant and glazed peanuts. Isn’t it enough that I’m making the pate au choux and two mousse fillings from scratch?! So I substituted dulce de leche for the fondant, and store bought roasted, salted peanuts for the glazed ones. In the end the peanuts were an improvement on the original as it gave a nice salty contrast to the sweet fillings and provided texture as well.
So I need to make another confession. This recipe took a few tries to get right, more so than usual. Which is why this post is so delayed. One attempt I accidentally mixed up the cream and milk between the two mousses and that ruined the texture. The peanut butter mousse came out stiff and un-pipeable, while the chocolate one was too loose. Then in another attempt, I didn’t use piping bags and tips when it was time to pipe the fillings. As a result, they came out as sad, lumpy and uneven blobs, when what I wanted was uniform dollops of mousse. It made me question (aka scream and curse) why I was trying so hard to make something that looked like a fancy donut!
Once everything was said and done, I made a tasty pastry. I guess the moral of this story is, to don’t be too hard on yourself if you screw up or make a mistake. Sometimes it can be fixed, while other times you’ll have to start all over again. Whether you bake for fun or for others, whoever eats it is going to appreciate the effort despite how it looks or tastes. I like to think that if Yeti could eat sweets he’d enjoy the leftovers from my Pinterest fails, but like all other rabbits he’s a pure vegan lol.
So this week I tackled Dominque Ansel’s Paris-New York. It’s a take on the classic Paris-Brest pastry, a choux pastry ring filled with praline cream and topped with almonds. Ansel’s version uses peanut butter and dark chocolate fillings to mimic a Reeses Cup, but in a more grown up, sophisticated way.
As experienced as I am, I’m not a pastry master like Dominque Ansel. So I took a few liberties with the recipe and made my own modifications to preserve my sanity. His version is topped with caramel fondant and glazed peanuts. Isn’t it enough that I’m making the pate au choux and two mousse fillings from scratch?! So I substituted dulce de leche for the fondant, and store bought roasted, salted peanuts for the glazed ones. In the end the peanuts were an improvement on the original as it gave a nice salty contrast to the sweet fillings and provided texture as well.
So I need to make another confession. This recipe took a few tries to get right, more so than usual. Which is why this post is so delayed. One attempt I accidentally mixed up the cream and milk between the two mousses and that ruined the texture. The peanut butter mousse came out stiff and un-pipeable, while the chocolate one was too loose. Then in another attempt, I didn’t use piping bags and tips when it was time to pipe the fillings. As a result, they came out as sad, lumpy and uneven blobs, when what I wanted was uniform dollops of mousse. It made me question (aka scream and curse) why I was trying so hard to make something that looked like a fancy donut!
Once everything was said and done, I made a tasty pastry. I guess the moral of this story is, to don’t be too hard on yourself if you screw up or make a mistake. Sometimes it can be fixed, while other times you’ll have to start all over again. Whether you bake for fun or for others, whoever eats it is going to appreciate the effort despite how it looks or tastes. I like to think that if Yeti could eat sweets he’d enjoy the leftovers from my Pinterest fails, but like all other rabbits he’s a pure vegan lol.
Notes:
- To avoid the hassle of washing and reusing piping tips. I suggest use a small Ziploc bag with no piping tip to pipe the choux rings.
- Use a small glass or a 2 ¾ in biscuit cutter as a template for the choux rings.
- I used powdered gelatin as it’s easily available in any grocery store. The gelatin bags that I had were 7 g each and I portioned them out into quarters to roughly get 1.5-2 g of gelatin.
- This is a 2-day project since the fillings need to chill and set for 12 hours. Both mousses and the dulce de leche need to be made the day before. While the choux pastry is to be made on the day of.
- Highly recommended tools: 2-3 pastry bags, 2-3 piping tips (Ateco #804)
Dark Chocolate Mousse
From Dominique Ansel: The Secret Recipes
Makes 3 cups
Ingredients
Instructions
From Dominique Ansel: The Secret Recipes
Makes 3 cups
Ingredients
- 2 g powdered gelatin
- ½ cup heavy cream
- 1/3 cup whole milk
- 1/3 cup + 2 Tbsp of dark chocolate chips
Instructions
- Sprinkle gelatin over 7.5 g of water (1 ½ Tbsp) and sit for 20 min.
- Whip cream till medium-stiff peaks. Refrigerate till needed.
- Bring milk to a boil over medium heat. Set aside.
- Whisk gelatin into hot milk till dissolved.
- Pour hot milk over chocolate and let sit for 30 sec.
- Then whisk till smooth, cool to 100F or till you can touch without burning yourself. You don’t want to melt the cream
- Using a rubber spatula, fold 1/3 of the cream into ganache until just combined.
- Fold in remaining cream till incorporated.
- Cover with plastic wrap touching the surface of the mousse and chill for 12 hours to fully set.
Peanut Butter Cream
From Dominique Ansel: The Secret Recipes
Makes 2 cups
Ingredients
Instructions
From Dominique Ansel: The Secret Recipes
Makes 2 cups
Ingredients
- 2 g powdered gelatin
- ¼ cup white chocolate
- ¼ cup smooth peanut butter
- ½ cup + 2 Tbsp heavy cream
Instructions
- Sprinkle gelatin over 7.5 g of water (1 ½ Tbsp) and sit for 20 min.
- Mix white chocolate and peanut butter together.
- Bring cream to a boil over medium heat. Set aside.
- Whisk gelatin into the hot cream till dissolved.
- Pour cream into bowl with the chocolate and let sit for 30 sec.
- Slowly stir peanut butter-chocolate till melted and smooth.
- Cover with plastic wrap touching the surface of the mousse.
- Chill for 12 hours to fully set.
Dulce de Leche
Ingredients
Instructions
Ingredients
- 1 can sweetened condensed milk (14 oz)
Instructions
- Remove paper label and clean off any other residue.
- Place can in a saucepot and fill with water. Make sure the can is covered by 1-2 inches of water.
- Bring water to a boil, then lower to a gentle simmer.
- Boil for 3 hrs, and flip can halfway through cooking time.
- Remove can from water with tongs, and allow to fully cool before opening.
Pate a Choux Pastry
From Saveur
Makes 4-6 pastry rings
Ingredients
Instructions
From Saveur
Makes 4-6 pastry rings
Ingredients
- ¼ cup milk
- ¼ cup water
- 4 Tbsp unsalted butter, cubed
- ¼ tsp kosher salt
- ½ cup all-purpose flour
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425F.
- Combine: milk, butter, salt, and water in a saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat.
- When butter has fully melted, add flour and stir until dough forms.
- Lower heat to medium and cook dough till slightly dried and forms a ball. Make sure to constantly stir dough using a wooden spoon.
- Transfer dough to a mixing bowl and over low speed start to mix for 1-2 min.
- Once cooled slightly, start adding eggs in one at a time. Making sure each one is fully incorporated before adding the next one.
- Prepare your baking sheet lined with parchment paper. For easy reference, measure and draw 2 ¾ inch circles. Remember to flip the paper so you aren’t piping directly onto your pencil markings.
- Transfer dough into a piping bag and pipe rings.
- Using a finger, dipped in water, flatten down any sharp edges.
- Place tray in the oven and immediately reduce the temperature down to 375F.
- Bake for 30 min or until golden brown. Remember to rotate the tray midway. Remove and cool to room temp before filling.
Paris-New York Assembly
Ingredients
Instructions
Ingredients
- 6 pastry rings, baked and cooled
- 2 cup chocolate mousse, in piping bag
- 2 cup peanut butter mousse, in piping bag
- ¼ cup dulce de leche
- 1/3 cup roasted salted peanuts, coarsely chopped
Instructions
- If dulce de leche is too thick, place in a heatproof bowl and microwave for 15 sec. Stir till smooth and set aside.
- Using a paring knife, cut the pastry horizontally 2/3 of the way down. So the top layer is thicker than the bottom.
- Dip the top of the ring into the warm dulce de leche and set aside.
- Pipe 5 dollops each of dark chocolate and peanut butter mousse onto the base.
- Place top back on and sprinkle chopped peanuts.