VOLS-AU-VENT !! with Home made puff pastry for Daring Baker's challenge september 2009
Hi everybody,Yes, I too have joined the Daring Bakers !!, and this is my first challenge, Oops!, it was quite a challenge for me, well anyway I and my girls enjoyed it the most we all did the baking, as they all helped me in baking, taking photos and not of course the best was all of us sat and filled them with whatever we liked and ate it together!!. They even said that the pastry was good than the store bought one !! .
With some more left over pastry I made puffs with savoury filling which once I had posted by using ready made puff pastry block and with some more I made another savoury filling with left over okra and peas gravy mixed with potato,capsicum and onion dry curry!! They were the best so my kids and friends said. They even asked for more !!
This is with my first pastry dough !!
Hi everybody,Yes, I too have joined the Daring Bakers !!, and this is my first challenge, Oops!, it was quite a challenge for me, well anyway I and my girls enjoyed it the most we all did the baking, as they all helped me in baking, taking photos and not of course the best was all of us sat and filled them with whatever we liked and ate it together!!. They even said that the pastry was good than the store bought one !! .
The September 2009 Daring Bakers Challenge was Hosted by Steph of A whisk and a spoon, she choose the Vols-au-vent based on the puff pastry recipe by Michel Richard from the cookbook Baking with Julia by Dorie Greenspan.
Puff pastry is in the ‘laminated dough” family, along with Danish dough and croissant dough. (In fact, if you participated in the Danish Braid challenge back in June 2008, then you already know the general procedure for working with laminated 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.
Puff pastry is in the ‘laminated dough” family, along with Danish dough and croissant dough. (In fact, if you participated in the Danish Braid challenge back in June 2008, then you already know the general procedure for working with laminated 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.
Prep Times:-about 4-5 hours to prepare the puff pastry dough (much of this time is inactive, while you wait 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)-about 1.5 hours to shape, chill and bake the vols-au-vent after your puff pastry dough is complete Forming and Baking the Vols-au-VentYield: 1/3 of the puff pastry recipe below will yield about 8-10 1.5” vols-au-vent or 4 4” vols-au-vent
Michel Richard’s Puff Pastry DoughFrom: Baking with Julia by Dorie GreenspanYield: 2-1/2 pounds doughSteph’s note: This recipe makes more than you will need for the quantity of vols-au-vent stated above. While I encourage you to make the full recipe of puff pastry, as extra dough freezes well, you can halve it successfully if you’d rather not have much leftover.
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…I listed the recipe as it appears printed in the book. http://video.pbs.org/video/1174110297/search/Pastry
Michel Richard’s Puff Pastry DoughFrom: Baking with Julia by Dorie GreenspanYield: 2-1/2 pounds doughSteph’s note: This recipe makes more than you will need for the quantity of vols-au-vent stated above. While I encourage you to make the full recipe of puff pastry, as extra dough freezes well, you can halve it successfully if you’d rather not have much leftover.
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…I listed the recipe as it appears printed in the book. http://video.pbs.org/video/1174110297/search/Pastry
You can find lots more general tips for making puff pastry on-line, including here:http://www.baking911.com/pastry/puff.htm
I encourage everyone to watch the on-line video from the PBS show “Baking with Julia” that accompanies the book:http://video.pbs.org/video/1174110297/search/Pastry
I encourage everyone to watch the on-line video from the PBS show “Baking with Julia” that accompanies the book:http://video.pbs.org/video/1174110297/search/Pastry
Ingredients:
-1-1/2 cups (12.2 oz/ 354 g) unbleached all-purpose
-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)
-1/4 cups (10 fl oz/ 300 ml) ice water
1 pound (16 oz/ 454 g) very cold unsalted butter
plus 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.
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.
plus 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.
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.
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.
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.
-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).
-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).
Well this the way Vols-Au-vents are made !!Let's come to my verdict : First of all I got confused with the flour, I substituted cake to self-raising flour !! which was my first mistake and then I had half margarine & half butter which I used together !! I do not know what went wrong but when I wrote to daring bakers forum audasartifex was kind enough to point out my mistakes, So as I had already made so much and had frozen it , I did not like to throw it so I used them and made all these , again I took half the quantity of the recipe and made an other batch and good God! it turned out well this time I used flour as tartelette had advised the easiest substitute is for everycup of cake flour = 1 cup of all purpose flour minus 2 tbsps.
So what did i do then, when I shaped and put them in the oven ( I had stacked six of them!) they just slopped and butter came oozing out ! I felt like crying, my kids said don't worry mum it will taste good, so the next time I made as somebody pointed out in the forum I put caps from a bottle to be on the safer side and they did come out well, I just sat in front of the oven all the time, Of course I had a little of butter oozing out but I took them at the right time and they were very buttery to taste, but my kids loved the other ones where they had lost their butter!! and they liked the savoury fillings in them than the sweet fillings.
this was my first one which slopped !!
I filled them with dried mixed peel of the all the fruits with sugar and glaced cherries.
I filled them with dried mixed peel of the all the fruits with sugar and glaced cherries.
The same filling i used and made it like a large pie !!
With some more left over pastry I made puffs with savoury filling which once I had posted by using ready made puff pastry block and with some more I made another savoury filling with left over okra and peas gravy mixed with potato,capsicum and onion dry curry!! They were the best so my kids and friends said. They even asked for more !!
At last I posted this.., with so many difficulties, just now when I uploaded my photos to the blog at 12:30 in the night suddenly google page disappeared and said their was an error and reloaded on its own again !!, but all the photos were gone, Good God ! I had to redo them again. Oh! no I deleted another two photos by mistake, oh! God now I am tired I will post this it is getting 1 O'clock in the night. Good night and hope my readers will enjoy this and thanks for the recipe and suggestions and guidence to the all the daring bakers who helped through this, I really did enjoy this and looking forward to the next one, bye....
Fuji Sushi
Thanks for sharing. Such a great variety.
Fuji
Thank you very much. Love sharing!
jayasri
hi Aparna & Audax, it's great knowing you both, you both have been very helpful in my success, Aparna who writes to me how to take my baking, and Audax wrote to me with lots of tips and advice on how to do these which made me succeed, but well they are not as yours you must check his blog for wonderful vols-au-vent, and many thanx for visiting my blog and leaving a comment too, thank you again both of you.
Thank you sush you made it a big thing, I didn't know it myself as I wrote to you, it's nice on updating the english name for it, thanx for that.
jyothi, jayasree & paritha thank you for your lovely encouraging words, paritha your vols-au-vent were just too good..
jayasree
Jaya, Great that you have met success with ur first db challenge. It has come out well. Kudos to ur gals for taking interest in this. Keep up the good work.
Parita
WOW didnt know u were a daring baker 🙂 congrats dear on your successful first attempt and they look marvellous 🙂 looking forward to your next attempts!
Jyoti
Looks wonderful...you put in a lot of hard work!
Audax
I just love the savoury ones you did okra & peas gravy mixed with potato,capsicum & onion dry curry!! they sounds fabulous. And I admire the determination that you showed in the forums and what a great lesson you taught your children about trying again and again. Also I'm stunned at the good results you got and as they say you learn from your mistakes and I'm sure you learnt a lot in this challenge. And welcome to the Daring Bakers' and congrats on your 1st challenge. Bravo, you are an inspriation and kudos on your efforts. Cheers from Audax in Australia. And YES the forums are a great place to learn new skills, tips and hints I'm always learning.
Sush
@Jayasri,
Thanks a lot for your honest comments at my blog. Let me check with my friend about hucchellu again.I'll update you & my blog soon on the results.
Aparna
Congratulations Jayasri, on your first and very successful DB challenge.
They seem to have turned out well. And if the children liked it, it would hev been very good! 🙂
jayasri
hi, thanks so much for visiting my blog and giving me such an encouragement.. raks,varsha, nithya,& sanghi. I just loved the challenge, never ever tried this, even though when we know the ingredients we would not make an attempt to do as you can always buy it here isn't it ?, Now I am confident I can make it anywhere!!, and they are so good in the forum they help you so much teaching you through the way, and yes my gals did a great job! I should thank them, they were so keen on taking some good photos they made their own fillings too!!
lata raja
oye oye!! Jayasri wonderful.Lovely !!
Chitra
wow , perfect outcome !!
Sanghi
Wonderful try dear..! Delicious puffs..!
Nithya
Wow. It looks tempting. Great attempt and great outcome. 🙂
Varsha Vipins
So much effort Jaya..hugs n hats off to you..!!
RAKS KITCHEN
Thats absolutely a great result!! U are a good baker and the pictures are great! Convey to ur gals :))Nice post!