Workshops — Boulangerie + Pâtisserie

Classic Paris-Brest Baking Class

A ring of choux, a great deal of praline cream, and a story about a bicycle race.

The experience

Today is really about the Paris-Brest – the pastry shaped like a bicycle wheel, in honour of a race from 1891 that nobody now remembers the winner of.

The pastry, happily, outlived the race. In a professional kitchen a few steps from the Champs-Élysées, the patient, friendly chefs at Studio Pâtisserie takes you through it from the beginning: the pâte à choux, cooked on the stove and then piped into a ring and scattered with almonds; the bake, which has to be trusted and not peeked at; and the praline – hazelnuts and caramel, ground to a paste and folded into a cream that is the whole reason anyone orders this thing in the first place.

Then the assembly: the ring split, the cream piped in generous, even rosettes, a dusting of sugar on top. It is the kind of pastry that looks far harder than it is, which is the best kind to learn. You leave with your own Paris-Brest, boxed, and a reasonable excuse to buy a piping bag when you get home.

We fell in love with the baking workshops at Studio Pâtisserie after an afternoon spent making éclairs with our family, and couldn’t wait to share them with you. We love that their little locations evoke Parisian charm, tucked away from the crowds, and that the chefs have an illustrious background, having studied at Le Cordon Bleu.

The studio

A professional pastry kitchen housed in a little out-of-the-way alcove that evokes Parisian charm, a few minutes’ walk from the Champs-Élysées.

The bake

A Paris-Brest with praline cream.

To take home

Everything you bake.

The chef

A patient, friendly professional pâtissier, trained at Le Cordon Bleu, with experience in notable French kitchens.

Enquire

Hungry to learn?

Pick a date on the calendar, or tell us about your group for a private class.

Les infos