JS: How did I get there? By sitting in a room and speaking to you and just saying anything that came to our mind for probably an hour.
SU: This is true. I remember were this brainstorming session. Hana was on it as well. Hana Asbrink is our deputy food editor. I remember-
JS: And it ended, and then Hana, she does her thing when she Slacks us at like 6:30 PM, 7:30 PM, she’s like, “What if?” “How about this?” “What if?” And then next morning she’s like, “I’m sorry, but what if,” “How about,” and it just ended up here.
SU: Yes, because Hana’s brilliant. She’s the one who was our unrequested pizza dough tester.
JS: Yes. Hana is the hidden backbone of this, so thank you, Hana. It originally was an eclair.
SU: Yes. I remember it being an eclair.
JS: A banana pudding eclair. I made, I don’t know, a couple. It was fine. I was trying out different shapes and then I had some extra choux, so I just piped this little ring and everyone’s like, “Wait a second, this should be a Paris-Brest.” And we’re like, sure. And then from there, it just took off and made a lot more sense to actually turn it into a Paris-Brest. It’s the same amount of effort, the same components, yet it’s so much more dramatic. It feels like an accomplishment. It’s very flashy, and I’m like, why not?
SU: It was really nice to see that evolution of the shape. And do you want to break down the different components of your banana pudding Paris-Brest?
JS: Sure. Okay. I’ll break them down and maybe the order I suggest making them.
SU: Okay.
JS: Okay. The banana cream. So ditch the praline cream. We’re making a banana cream and it starts with a pastry cream, which, for those who don’t know, pastry cream is like milk and butter, sugar, whatever else you want, like vanilla, salt, and you cook it with eggs, usually egg yolks, sometimes a combo, and cornstarch. And when that mixture reaches that point to activate the starch and cook the eggs, it thickens into this really nice creamy pastry cream. It’s like the mother sauce, honestly, of desserts. You can do so much with it. But in this recipe, I first heat the milk with four banana peels. You bring it to a simmer and you very gently steep it for 10 minutes.
Dining and Cooking