Salted Caramel Paris Brest

Steps

1. Preheat the oven to 200ºc (fan)/400ºf/gas mark 6 and cover your baking sheet with a layer of baking parchment. Draw a 20cm circle on the parchment; you will use this as a guide. Sieve your flour onto a piece of greaseproof paper or parchment. This will help you shoot the flour into the hot water and Stork later.
2. Put the Stork and water in a large saucepan and heat until just boiling and the Stork melts. Take it off the heat quickly so the water doesn’t evaporate. Pour the flour into the hot water and stir. Put the pan back on the heat. Keep stirring for at least a minute until the mixture begins to clump together and come away from the pan. Spoon this dough into a mixing bowl and leave to cool for 5 minutes.
3. While the dough is cooling beat together the eggs in a jug. Then mix the egg into the dough a small amount at a time. Keep adding the egg gradually until you have dough with silky, good piping consistency. Don’t worry if you don’t use all the egg.
4. Spoon the choux pastry into a piping bag with a 1cm nozzle. On your baking parchment pipe a circle of pastry following the line you’ve drawn. Then pipe individual rounds on the inside of the circle, as shown. Dip your finger in water and lightly flatten the peaks on the piped pastry, then sprinkle water over the tray. This will help create steam, which in turn will help the choux pastry to rise.
5. Bake for 20 minutes on 200°C, then turn the temperature down to 160°C and bake for a further 15 minutes, or until pastry is risen and golden. Do not open the oven for the first 35 minutes of baking. Take the choux ring out of the oven and make a series of holes in the bottom using a skewer. Place the ring back on the baking tray, hole side up, and bake for a further 5 minutes to help dry the inside. Once baked allow to cool completely on a wire rack before filling.
6. To make the salted caramel cream filling, first fill your sink with cold water. You will need to plunge your saucepan in this later. In a medium sized saucepan heat the sugar and water over a medium-high heat stirring until sugar has dissolved, after this stop stirring. Wait and watch for the sugar to turn an amber colour. This can happen very quickly. When this happens take off the heat and carefully pour 200ml of the cream down the side of the saucepan into the caramel. Whisk together the cream and caramel until smooth, stir in the salt then plunge the saucepan into the cold water to stop the caramel cooking any more (if the caramel sets before you’ve managed to whisk it smooth put back on the heat briefly to melt the sugar). Allow to cool in the water for 20 minutes.
7. When you are ready to serve, finish the caramel cream by whipping the remaining double cream into soft peaks, fold in the caramel then whip until you have stiff peaks. Slice the choux ring in half horizontally, then spoon the cream into a piping bag and pipe the cream onto the bottom half. Place the top half of pastry on the cream layer.
8. Melt the chocolate then drizzle over the pastry. Sprinkle over the gold star sprinkles. Ideally this dessert needs to be eaten soon after being constructed as the cream can make the pastry soggy.