I've learned how to make puff pastry! I have to admit that while I'm snobby about some baked goods, like a prejudice against storebought frozen pie crust, I've always fully supported buying frozen puff pastry. It's laborious to make, and the stuff in the freezer case is pretty good. This month's challenge called for making vols-au-vent. They're the round cases of puff pastry, and the fillings were up to us. I chose Blackberry Mousse, and Warm Brie with Raspberry.
The mousse wasn't the best I've ever had, so I won't post the mediocre recipe, but it did look pretty. The brie vols-au-vent were delicious, and the flavors were offset with tart and slightly sweet raspberry. I was afraid a slip-up in technicalities might result in flat puff pastry, but these rose nicely. The hardest part was beating the cold butter flat. Sometimes you see TV chefs whip out a rolling pin and bang something around, and they talk about how stress-relieving it is. Not for me!! I had to use serious muscle to beat the cold, hard stuff into submission, and was glad the neighbors weren't home to hear the racket. It also made everything else on the counters clang, and I can't say I'll be abusing butter with a rolling pin the next time I have a bad day.
The rest of the process went like this:
A basic dough without butter is quickly whizzed up in the food processor.
The dough rolls out nicely.
You roll out the four corners to create flaps, with the center remaining thicker and slightly raised.
That is ONE POUND of butter. Which equals 4 sticks. This is not for dieters.
Fold a flap over to begin making your "butter sandwich."
Get the remaining flaps as well.
Then roll it all out. You can kind of make out where the sticks of butter are. They shouldn't be poking through like that, but it's hard to work it in evenly. And it turned out all right.
Fold the sides in like a letter. This is what's called a turn, the first of six to incorporate the butter evenly. You roll it out again and repeat.
Bakers poke holes in the dough when resting it to remind them how many turns it has undergone. Here, the three holes represent three turns. It's imperative that the dough remain cold and not start oozing butter or sticking, and that you brush off excess flour.
You can attempt two to four turns before sticking it in the fridge. I made it to four, but it was starting to get melty so I quickly stuck it in the fridge overnight.
The next day, I rolled the dough through the final two turns, for a grand total of six.
You cut out small rounds of dough, and then poke holes in half of them. I didn't have a cutter small enough for the holes, so here I used a cannoli mold.
The rounds make up the bases of the vols-au-vent, and you poke them with a fork for steam to escape. The rounds with holes make up the sides of the upper half. The cutouts can be saved for another use that doesn't require high rise, or saved as caps to top the filling with.
They're brushed with egg wash, and for the first part of their stay in the oven they're covered with a silicone mat. The light weight helps them bake up evenly, and they come out beautiful and golden. On subsequent uses I found that waxed paper wasn't ideal and stuck to the dough, so a silicone mat or parchment paper is better for the sheet pan.
Look how tall and flaky this beauty is! Stay tuned . . . I'll tell you what I did with the leftover dough!
THE CHALLENGE
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.
Puff pastry (aka pâte feuilletée) is something most of us usually buy at the grocery store,
