1,558 easy and fully explained recipes, with +66K photos and 78 videos

This site uses only a few technical cookies necessary for its operation. By continuing to browse, you accept their use.
To find out more...

Chinois

Name: Chinois
Prep time: 4 h 49 min
Cook time: 40 min
Total time: 5 h 29 min
Yield: 1 Chinois
Cuisine: French
Ingredients: 500 g brioche dough; 300 g confectioner's custard (crème pâtissière, or french pastry cream); 20 g beaten egg; 100 g fondant icing

"Chinese" - what a strange name for this cake! A kind of brioche, filled with confectioner's custard (crème pâtissière) which can be decorated with fondant icing.

280 K 2× 3.9/5 (34 reviews)

5 hours 30 min. difficulté

Easy

3.15 €

1 Chinois

4 Ingredients

Last modified on: September 10^th 2018

For 1 Chinois, you will need:

1 500 g brioche dough
2 300 g confectioner's custard (crème pâtissière, or french pastry cream)
3 20 g beaten egg
4 100 g fondant icing (optional)
Total weight: 820 grams

Times for this recipe

Preparation: 50 min.

Resting: 4 hours

Cooking: 40 min.

All in all: 5 hours 30 min.

When should you start or finish this recipe?

If you start now, at , you will finish around : ?.Change start time

To finish around 7pm, you'll need to have started before: .Change end time

Step by step recipe

Stage 1 - ⌛ 10 min.

After preparing 500 g brioche dough, refridgerate for 1 or 2 hours or overnight, so that the dough becomes firm.

Then roll out dough (sprinkle generously with flour) into a large rectangle about 1 cm or 0.5 inch thick.

Stage 2 - ⌛ 3 min.

Put this rectangle on a bigger sheet of cooking parchment. If necessary, reshape your rectangle after this transfer operation.

Stage 3 - ⌛ 5 min.

Spread a layer of 300 g confectioner's custard (crème pâtissière, or french pastry cream) all over dough rectangle, 0.5 cm or 0.25 inch thick (add more if you wish).

Stage 4 - ⌛ 5 min.

Now your goal is to roll up the dough to form a cylinder.

It looks difficult, but in fact it's quite easy, thanks to the paper sheet. Use it to start rolling, without touching the dough, and so form the roll.

Stage 5

Continue until completely rolled up.

Stage 6 - ⌛ 2 hours

Put roll on a baking sheet, and refrigerate for about 2 hours, until the roll becomes quite firm.

Stage 7 - ⌛ 3 min.

After this time, remove roll from the fridge and with a large sharp knife, trimm off the ends to neaten.

Note: you can cook these bits later.

Stage 8 - ⌛ 10 min.

Then cut the roll into slices about 3 cm or 1.5 inches thick, and arrange them in a round mould or tray, touching one touching another.

That's why firm dough is absolutely essential, otherwise the slices will squash during cutting.

Stage 9 - ⌛ 2 hours

Cover mould with a plastic sheet, and leave in a warm place for 2 hours.

Stage 10 - ⌛ 3 min.

After this time, preheat oven to 180°C or 356°F. Glaze top of cake.

Stage 11 - ⌛ 40 min.

Put in the oven for about 30 minutes.

Stage 12 - ⌛ 10 min.

Turn out on a wire rack.

When cake is cool, you can decorate it with 100 g fondant icing, melted in bain-marie or microwave oven.

Remarks

You can also put on the custard before rolling up: raisins, small pieces of dried apricot, chocolates chips, etc.

Keeping: 1 or 2 days in the fridge, folded in a plastic film.

Source: Home made.

Nutritional information

	Proteins (gr)	Carbohydrates (gr)	Fats (gr)	Energy value (in k-calories)	Energy value (in k-joules)
Whole recipe	670 RDI=260 %	3,070 RDI=290 %	1,390 RDI=210 %	2,990 RDI=150 %	12,510 RDI: 150 %
Per 100 g	80 RDI=30 %	370 RDI=40 %	170 RDI=30 %	360 RDI=20 %	1,530 RDI: 20 %

Possible allergens in this recipe: milk, egg, Gluten, leaven

How much will it cost?

For 1 Chinois : 3.20 €

Change currency:

Note: Be careful, these prices are only an estimate, you can consult the table of prices by ingredients used for this estimate.

This recipe uses (among others)

Other recipes you may also like

Bouquet garni

Used very frequently in French cuisine, a secret of French chefs, it adds flavour to a lot of recipes, and it's easy to prepare. The basic principle is to make a small bundle of herbs, bind them in green leek leaves and to tie it up, so that the whole thing can be removed and discarded easily after cooking.

March 21^th 2017438 K3.5 15 min.

Almond cream

Light and delicious, it is used in a lot of desserts like tarts, cakes and pies (epiphany galette).

August 31^th 2025495 K 25 20 min.

Ramekins of duchess potatoes

Duchess potatoes are a mix of mashed potato and egg yolks, cooked in the oven, in a decorative shape and delicious. In this recipe they top a ramekin containing a layer of mashed potato, cooked leek, and thinly sliced bacon.

March 4^th 2020313 K 24.6 2 hours 5 min.

You should not leave egg yolks in contact with sugar

You should not leave egg yolks in contact with sugar for too long without beating them, because this contact "cooks" egg yolks and you will get small lumps of hard egg in your mixture.

February 21^th 2011139 K5

You should not add raisins to recipes dry

Used straight from the packet raisins are too dry and hard.

February 21^th 2011284 K4.1 40 min.

News list of cooking-ez.com

Note: We'll never share your e-mail address with anyone else.

The 2 comments already posted on this recipe

Quite strange, problem with the brioche dough maybe?
Posted by jh december 3^rd 2015 at 15:26 n° 2
I actually baked this recipe and followed directions. I also used your Brioche and Custard recipes also. My results looked exactly like yours in the picture, except for one thing, when my Chinois cooled, the bread inside the "Rolls" shrank to almost nothing! I am not sure why, but that was disappointing.
Posted by Anonymous december 2^nd 2015 at 11:43 n° 1

Follow this recipe

If you are interested in this recipe, you can "follow" it, by entering your email address here. You will then receive a notification immediately each time the recipe is modified or a new comment is added. Please note that you will need to confirm this following.