When I am looking for something new to bake, I enthusiastically search on the Daring baker's site for the challenges that were rolled out before I joined this group. Usually these recipes are very reliable and most of the times fun to work on. The Vols-au-Vent challenge was rolled by Steph of a wish and a spoon in September 2009 which looked particularly interesting as they can be twisted towards savory or sweet mood/need.
This challenge required the group to first make puff pastry and then use that to make Vols-au-Vent. Making puff pastry from scratch seemed a lot of work but the idea of making Vols-au-Vent from the store bought puff pastry sounded perfect. Vols-au-Vent are really presentable and can be made in different sizes and shapes - your chance to go creative here!
Ingredients:
1 puff pastry sheet (thawed according to instruction on the packaging)
1 tbsp water
Filling of your choice (I used guacamole)
- Preheat an oven to 350 degree.
- Roll out one sheet of puff pastry.
- Using a 1.5" round cutter, cut 16 pieces.
- Using a 3/4" cutter, cut centers of eight of the 1.5" pieces and remove the center 3/4" pieces carefully. The 3/4" can be the cap for your vols-au vent.
- Prick the remaining eight 1.5" pieces. Be careful that your fork don't get all the way through. Apply some water to the circumference of these eight pieces
- Place the parts with 3/4" holes (left after removing 3/4" piece) on top of the pricked eight pieces of 1.5" diameter pressing them little so that outer edges of whole pieces and pieces with 3/4" holes are coincided. You can also look at the original post by steph where pictures of these steps are shown.
- Place the assembled eight pieces (1.5" + 1.5" with hole) and the eight pieces of the 3/4" pieces on a greased baking sheet.
- Check oven after ten minutes and remove the 3/4" pieces if they are done. Depending upon the intensity of your oven it may take 10-15 minutes for the 3/4" pieces to be done.
- After 15 minutes from the initial time, check the 1.5" pieces and if not done keep them in the oven for another 5-10 minutes. Be very careful at this stage because it may take very little time for them to go from done to burnt stage. During my trial, the 1.5" pieces were ready in 15 minutes although Steph's recipe mentioned that it will take about 30 minutes. I guess it depends upon the intensity of the oven.
- When done, remove from oven and let them cool. Fill with your favorite filling (I used guacamole) and enjoy vols-au-vent.
- You can use 4"/2.5" combination instead of 1.5"/3/4" for larger pieces for main course or dessert.
6 comments:
These look so pretty.. And sound easy to make as well, if you are comfortable with puff pastry that is. Which I am not. I tried the Allegra Moroccan pie with phyllo and that also didn't turn out that great in terms of staying together (though tasty, it was falling apart in many spots).
Thanks. I agree phyllo is a bit delicate but don't u think puff pastry is much more easier to handle than phyllo ? puff pastry is just one thick sheet while phyllo sheets are really thin.
Maine kabhi puff pastry se kuch banaya hi nahin hai.. I should try I think
a popular desi way to use puff pastry is to make the veggie puff pasty like we get in Desh...I also liked the cuteness of Vols-au-Vent:)
Cute to bhar ke hain.. main soch rahi hoon ke abhi cinco de mayo ke din Mexican theme dinner banau.. aur usme yeh guac vale vols-su-vent banau :)
good...I got enrolled in Daring cooks also but haven't made anything from that series yet. they also rolled out Enchilada (including sauce & tortilla) in celebration for cinco de mayo..
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