The Daring Bakers Puff Their Stuff with Vols-Au-Vent

The September 2009 Daring Bakers' Challenge was hosted by Steph of A Whisk and a Spoon. She chose the French treat, Vols-au-Vent, based on the Puff Pastry recipe by Michel Richard, from the cookbook  Baking With Julia, by Dorie Greenspan.

Our Challenge was to make Puff pastry (aka pâte feuilletée), form vols-au-vent cases, and then fill the cases with a sweet or savory filling.

I totally procrastinated on this Challenge, hoping the summer heat would fade into crisp, cool autumn weather...HELLO, Southern California, summer is over! I'm ready for apple pie and snuggle time, not baking, half-naked, in a blistering kitchen!

I ended up dedicating the bulk of my weekend to this Challenge and prepared savory and sweet versions of my vols-au-vent!  For my savory version, I chose Tyler Florence's Ultimate Shrimp Bisque

And for my sweet version, Gale Gand's Free-Form Pear Tart with Almond and Cinnamon

A vols-au-vent, French for "windblown" to describe its lightness, is a small hollow case of puff pastry. A round opening is cut in the top and the pastry cut out for the opening is replaced as a lid after the case is filled.

Steph chose vols-au-vent specifically because they do a beautiful job of showing off the hundreds of flaky layers in the homemade puff. They can be made large enough for a full meal, or made small for little one-
bite canapés, the choice was ours.

Here's a little Puff Pastry Primer 101, provided by Steph:

Puff pastry is in the ‘laminated dough” family, along with Danish dough and croissant dough.  A laminated dough consists of a large block of butter (called the “beurrage”) that is enclosed in dough (called the “détrempe”). This dough/butter packet is called a “paton,” and is rolled and folded repeatedly (a process known as “turning”) to create the crisp, flaky, parallel layers you see when baked. Unlike Danish or croissant however, puff pastry dough contains no yeast in the détrempe, and relies solely aeration to achieve its high rise. The turning process creates hundreds of layers of butter and dough, with air trapped between each one. In the hot oven, water in the dough and the melting butter creates steam, which expands in the trapped air pockets, forcing the pastry to rise.

I made Fine Cooking's Classic Croissants about a year ago, when I participated in the Cook the Issue Challenge, but I've never attempted Puff Pastry (croissants contain yeast, puff pastry does not).  When a recipe called for Puff Pastry, I had always turned to Pepperidge Farm for their Puff Pastry Sheets, or Puff Pastry Shells aka vols-au-vent.  Never again.

However, we happened to have some PF Puff Pastry Shells in the freezer, so I decided to bake one along with my homemade ones and do a little visual and taste comparison.   Mine is on the left; the Pepperidge Farm one is on the right.  Visually, they both look pleasing, with nice puff and layers.  The difference is in the taste and texture.  The challenge recipe resulted in light, flaky, buttery, and clearly superior vols-au-vent. 

This is the dough, after incorporating the butter and the first few turns.  It's rolled out, and then folded in thirds

Which completes a "turn"

And here are a few of the vols-au-vent ready to go into the oven

Now, onto the fillings.  The bisque isn't really a "filling" for these, but I liked the presentation and it was nice having a bite of pastry with each spoonful of bisque. 

Tyler's Shrimp Bisque can be found in his cookbook, Tyler's Ultimate:  Brilliant Simple Food to Make Anytime, and on Food Network, here.

When you start preparing a recipe like this, you know it's going to be delicious by the beautiful, fresh,  ingredients :  Carrots, celery, onion, leeks, thyme, bay leaf, and orange zest.  Brandy and heavy cream doesn't hurt either.

Large shrimp, with the shells used to make the stock

The vegetables, herbs, spices and shrimp shells are sauteed in olive oil

Then the pan is deglazed with brandy.  Water and cream is added and the bisque reduced for about 45 minutes.

The bisque is strained and the shrimp are added briefly until cooked through.  This is a very rich soup, but the flavors are incredible.  For serving, I placed a vols-au-vent in a shallow bowl, perched a few shrimp on top,  ladled in the bisque, and garnished with orange zest and chives.

The Pear Tart I chose for my leftover puff pastry dough was originally published in Fine Cooking #84, and can also be found here.  Obviously, I used my homemade puff pastry, rather than the frozen puff pastry called for in the recipe.  Also, I added a few dried cherries which had been soaked in cherry liqueur.

Before placing the sliced pears on the pastry, you put a little round of almond paste and a dollup of sour cream in the middle.

The pears are decoratively placed over the top and sprinkled with cinnamon-sugar.  I added my dried cherries and folded the pastry edges up around the pears.  The tarts are then baked for about 20 minutes.

 

 
I gave a few tarts to Jim & Carmen, and Mom, and will take the rest to the office tomorrow.
 
I've been cooking and blogging most of the weekend, so it's time to relax a bit before bed.  Here's the Challenge recipe for Vols-au-Vent.  It's long, but really not that difficult.  Read through the recipe a few times, watch the Julia Child video, keep your dough chilled, and make sure your oven is at the right temperature before baking!
 
Thank you, Steph, for broading my baking skills!
  
Vols-au-Vent, based on the Puff Pastry recipe by Michel Richard, from the cookbook Baking With Julia, by Dorie Greenspan

Equipment:  Food processor (will make mixing dough easy, but this can be done by hand as well); Rolling pin; Pastry brush; Metal bench scraper (optional, but recommended); Plastic wrap;
Baking sheet; Pachment paper; Silicone baking mat (optional, but recommended); Set of round cutters (optional, but recommended); Sharp chef’s knife; Fork; Oven...duh..;-) and Cooling rack

Preparation Time:  It takes about 4-5 hours to prepare the puff pastry dough (much of this time is inactive, while waiting for the dough to chill between turns)  It can be stretched out over an even longer period of time if that better suits your schedule.  It takes an additional 1.5 hours to shape, chill and bake the vols-au-vent after the puff pastry dough is complete.

Forming and Baking the Vols-au-Vent
Yield: 1/3 of the puff pastry recipe below will yield about 8-10 1.5” vols-au-vent or 4 4” vols-au-vent

In addition to the equipment listed above, you will need:  Well-chilled puff pastry dough (recipe below); egg wash (1 egg or yolk beaten with a small amount of water); your filling of choice

• Line a baking sheet with parchment and set aside;
• Using a knife or metal bench scraper, divided your chilled puff pastry dough into three equal pieces. Work with one piece of the dough, and leave the rest wrapped and chilled. (If you are looking to make more vols-au-vent than the yield stated above, you can roll and cut the remaining two pieces of dough as well…if not, then leave refrigerated for the time being or prepare it for longer-term freezer storage. See the “Tips” section below for more storage info.);
• On a lightly floured surface, roll the piece of dough into a rectangle about 1/8 to 1/4-inch (3-6 mm) thick. Transfer it to the baking sheet and refrigerate for about 10 minutes before proceeding with the cutting.
• (This assumes you will be using round cutters, but if you do not have them, it is possible to cut square vols-au-vents using a sharp chef’s knife.) For smaller, hors d'oeuvre sized vols-au-vent, use a 1.5” round cutter to cut out 8-10 circles. For larger sized vols-au-vent, fit for a main course or dessert, use a 4” cutter to cut out about 4 circles. Make clean, sharp cuts and try not to twist your cutters back and forth or drag your knife through the dough. Half of these rounds will be for the bases, and the other half will be for the sides. (Save any scrap by stacking—not wadding up—the pieces…they can be re-rolled and used if you need extra dough. If you do need to re-roll scrap to get enough disks, be sure to use any rounds cut from it for the bases, not the ring-shaped sides.)
• Using a ¾-inch cutter for small vols-au-vent, or a 2- to 2.5-inch round cutter for large, cut centers from half of the rounds to make rings. These rings will become the sides of the vols-au-vent, while the solid disks will be the bottoms. You can either save the center cut-outs to bake off as little “caps” for you vols-au-vent, or put them in the scrap pile.
• Dock the solid bottom rounds with a fork (prick them lightly, making sure not to go all the way through the pastry) and lightly brush them with egg wash. Place the rings directly on top of the bottom rounds and very lightly press them to adhere. Brush the top rings lightly with egg wash, trying not to drip any down the sides (which may inhibit rise). If you are using the little “caps,” dock and egg wash them as well;
• Refrigerate the assembled vols-au-vent on the lined baking sheet while you pre-heat the oven to 400ºF (200ºC). (You could also cover and refrigerate them for a few hours at this point.);
• Once the oven is heated, remove the sheet from the refrigerator and place a silicon baking mat (preferred because of its weight) or another sheet of parchment over top of the shells. This will help them rise evenly. Bake the shells until they have risen and begin to brown, about 10-15 minutes depending on their size. Reduce the oven temperature to 350ºF (180ºC), and remove the silicon mat or parchment sheet from the top of the vols-au-vent. If the centers have risen up inside the vols-au-vent, you can gently press them down. Continue baking (with no sheet on top) until the layers are golden, about 15-20 minutes more. (If you are baking the center “caps” they will likely be finished well ahead of the shells, so keep an eye on them and remove them from the oven when browned.)
• Remove to a rack to cool. Cool to room temperature for cold fillings or to warm for hot fillings.
• Fill and serve.

*For additional rise on the larger-sized vols-au-vents, you can stack one or two additional ring layers on top of each other (using egg wash to "glue"). This will give higher sides to larger vols-au-vents, but is not advisable for the smaller ones, whose bases may not be large enough to support the extra weight.

*Although they are at their best filled and eaten soon after baking, baked vols-au-vent shells can be stored airtight for a day.

*Shaped, unbaked vols-au-vent can be wrapped and frozen for up to a month (bake from frozen, egg-washing them first).

Michel Richard’s Puff Pastry Dough

From Baking with Julia by Dorie Greenspan
Yield: 2-1/2 pounds dough

Steph’s note: This recipe makes more than you will need for the quantity of vols-au-vent stated above. While we were encouraged to make the full recipe of puff pastry, as extra dough freezes well, we had the option of cutting the recipe in half.

There is a wonderful on-line video from the PBS show “Baking with Julia” that accompanies the book. In it, Michel Richard and Julia Child demonstrate making puff pastry dough (although they go on to use it in other applications). They do seem to give slightly different ingredient measurements verbally than the ones in the book…We are using the recipe as it appears printed in the book. Here's the video.

Ingredients:

2-1/2 cups (12.2 oz/ 354 g) unbleached all-purpose flour
1-1/4 cups (5.0 oz/ 142 g) cake flour
1 tbsp. salt (you can cut this by half for a less salty dough or for sweet preparations)
1-1/4 cups (10 fl oz/ 300 ml) ice water
1 pound (16 oz/ 454 g) very cold unsalted butter
Extra flour for dusting work surface

Mixing the Dough:

Check the capacity of your food processor before you start. If it cannot hold the full quantity of ingredients, make the dough into two batches and combine them.

Put the all-purpose flour, cake flour, and salt in the work bowl of a food processor fitted with a metal blade and pulse a couple of times just to mix. Add the water all at once, pulsing until the dough forms a ball on the blade. The dough will be very moist and pliable and will hold together when squeezed between your fingers. (Actually, it will feel like Play-Doh.)

Remove the dough from the machine, form it into a ball, with a small sharp knife, slash the top in a tic-tac-toe pattern. Wrap the dough in a damp towel and refrigerate for about 5 minutes. Yes, this was easy.

Meanwhile, place the butter between 2 sheets of plastic wrap and beat it with a rolling pin until it flattens into a square that's about 1" thick. Take care that the butter remains cool and firm: if it has softened or become oily, chill it before continuing.

Incorporating the Butter:

Unwrap the dough and place it on a work surface dusted with all-purpose flour (A cool piece of marble is the ideal surface for puff pastry) with your rolling pin (preferably a French rolling pin without handles), press on the dough to flatten it and then roll it into a 10" square. Keep the top and bottom of the dough well floured to prevent sticking and lift the dough and move it around frequently. Starting from the center of the square, roll out over each corner to create a thick center pad with "ears," or flaps. 
Place the cold butter in the middle of the dough and fold the ears over the butter, stretching them as needed so that they overlap slightly and encase the butter completely. (If you have to stretch the dough, stretch it from all over; don't just pull the ends) you should now have a package that is 8" square.  
To make great puff pastry, it is important to keep the dough cold at all times. There are specified times for chilling the dough, but if your room is warm, or you work slowly, or you find that for no particular reason the butter starts to ooze out of the pastry, cover the dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate it.  You can stop at any point in the process and continue at your convenience or when the dough is properly chilled.

Making the Turns:

Gently but firmly press the rolling pin against the top and bottom edges of the square (this will help keep it square). Then, keeping the work surface and the top of the dough well floured to prevent sticking, roll the dough into a rectangle that is three times as long as the square you started with, about 24" (don't worry about the width of the rectangle: if you get the 24", everything else will work itself out.) With this first roll, it is particularly important that the butter be rolled evenly along the length and width of the rectangle; check when you start rolling that the butter is moving along well, and roll a bit harder or more evenly, if necessary, to get a smooth, even dough-butter sandwich (use your arm-strength!).

With a pastry brush, brush off the excess flour from the top of the dough, and fold the rectangle up from the bottom and down from the top in thirds, like a business letter, brushing off the excess flour. You have completed one turn.

Rotate the dough so that the closed fold is to your left, like the spine of a book. Repeat the rolling and folding process, rolling the dough to a length of 24" and then folding it in thirds. This is the second turn.

Chilling the Dough:

If the dough is still cool and no butter is oozing out, you can give the dough another two turns now. If the condition of the dough is iffy, wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate it for at least 30 minutes.  Each time you refrigerate the dough, mark the number of turns you've completed by indenting the dough with your fingertips. It is best to refrigerate the dough for 30 to 60 minutes between each set of two turns.

The total number of turns needed is six. If you prefer, you can give the dough just four turns now, chill it overnight, and do the last two turns the next day. Puff pastry is extremely flexible in this regard. However, no matter how you arrange your schedule, you should plan to chill the dough for at least an hour before cutting or shaping it.

After refrigerating the dough for 30 minutes, after two turns, I took it out and squeaked in two more turns. The butter started coming through the dough a little, so I think I'll stop at this point and either refrigerate the dough overnight, as stated above.

Steph’s extra tips:

*While this is not included in the original recipe we are using (and I did not do this in my own trials), many puff pastry recipes use a teaspoon or two of white vinegar or lemon juice, added to the ice water, in the détrempe dough. This adds acidity, which relaxes the gluten in the dough by breaking down the proteins, making rolling easier. You are welcome to try this if you wish.  (I forgot about this tip, but my dough was extremely easy to roll)
*Keep things cool by using the refrigerator as your friend! If you see any butter starting to leak through the dough during the turning process, rub a little flour on the exposed dough and chill straight away. Although you should certainly chill the dough for 30 to 60 minutes between each set of two turns, if you feel the dough getting to soft or hard to work with at any point, pop in the fridge for a rest.
*Not to sound contradictory, but if you chill your paton longer than the recommended time between turns, the butter can firm up too much. If this seems to be the case, I advise letting it sit at room temperature for 5-10 minutes to give it a chance to soften before proceeding to roll. You don't want the hard butter to separate into chuncks or break through the dough...you want it to roll evenly, in a continuous layer.
*Roll the puff pastry gently but firmly, and don’t roll your pin over the edges, which will prevent them from rising properly. Don't roll your puff thinner than about about 1/8 to 1/4-inch (3-6 mm) thick, or you will not get the rise you are looking for.
*Try to keep “neat” edges and corners during the rolling and turning process, so the layers are properly aligned. Give the edges of the paton a scooch with your rolling pin or a bench scraper to keep straight edges and 90-degree corners.
*Brush off excess flour before turning dough and after rolling.
*Make clean cuts. Don’t drag your knife through the puff or twist your cutters too much, which can inhibit rise.
*When egg washing puff pastry, try not to let extra egg wash drip down the cut edges, which can also inhibit rise.
*Extra puff pastry dough freezes beautifully. It’s best to roll it into a sheet about 1/8 to 1/4-inch thick (similar to store-bought puff) and freeze firm on a lined baking sheet. Then you can easily wrap the sheet in plastic, then foil (and if you have a sealable plastic bag big enough, place the wrapped dough inside) and return to the freezer for up to a few months. Defrost in the refrigerator when ready to use.
*You can also freeze well-wrapped, unbaked cut and shaped puff pastry (i.e., unbaked vols-au-vent shells). Bake from frozen, without thawing first.
*Homemade puff pastry is precious stuff, so save any clean scraps. Stack or overlap them, rather than balling them up, to help keep the integrity of the layers. Then give them a singe “turn” and gently re-roll. Scrap puff can be used for applications where a super-high rise is not necessary (such as palmiers, cheese straws, napoleons, or even the bottom bases for your vols-au-vent).

***Be sure to visit The Daring Kitchen and The Daring Bakers' blogroll to see hundreds of beautiful and creative vols-au-vent, and fillings!