black sesame Paris-Brest

This is a recipe that I was challenged to make by my friend Dominique, who sends not just amazing postcards but also culinary inspiration! A Paris-Brest is a famous French dessert comprised of a wheel (it’s named after a famous bicycle race between the two French cities) made of pâte à choux, cut open and layered with crème pâtissière mixed with praliné. Then sometimes whipped cream is piped on top and the lid is replaced.

This is a recipe from Claire Saffitz’ Dessert Person cookbook which calls for substituting the praliné with black tahini. She writes that it gives a nutty, somewhat bitter flavor which offsets the sweetness of the whipped cream and the dessert in general. She says it’s a great recipe because the dessert itself is familiar but it’s got an unfamiliar and surprising twist. I was eager to try it, since I love tahini and the photo was so enticing with the charcoal-colored crème pâtissière against the stark white whipped cream.

So I searched high and low for the black tahini, finally finding a jar at my local Middle Eastern grocer. The black tahini - or qizha as it can also be labeled (although they may actually be different products?) - is actually made of Nigella seeds and black sesame seeds ground up, and it really looks like black paint, it’s so black. I was truly intrigued!

Sadly, this recipe did not live up to the hype. The qizha was really bitter and the flavor unfamiliar. I was distracted by it. The choux also doesn’t have the structure to hold up to such a large format - it was floppy even though it was cooked through and the crust was crispy. Saffitz recommends cutting the ring into eighths, but these slices were massive, so I ended up halving the slices again to sixteen. We had a small gathering of eight people total on Sunday and only three pieces were eaten. Once guest said they liked it overall, but it was too intense. Maybe they were being polite?

So, I have to say this may be the first big miss from a cookbook I have really grown to love. I’m certainly not throwing out the cookbook by any means, but the next time I want to make a Paris-Brest, I think I’ll stick to the original recipe.