Falafel
Ingredients
250 g chickpeas
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 handful of parsley, chopped
1 handful of coriander, chopped
1 chili pepper, chopped (optional)
2 tbsp flour (I used gluten free flour for this one)
¾ tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp coriander seeds, crushed
1 ltr vegetable oil
salt and pepper
Method
1. Take a large bowl and put in the chickpeas. Then, pour over enough water to cover the chickpeas and an additional 2 cm more. Leave to soak overnight. In the morning they will look plump and swollen.
2. Hold the chickpeas over the sink and drain off the water. Now spoon the chickpeas into the blender bowl. Don't overfill the blender! Close the blender and pulse a couple of times, then blend on full power until you create a breadcrumb like mixture. Check the consistency by stirring with a spoon. If necessary, blend again on full power until you create a fine purée. Then transfer into a bowl.
3. Put the parsley, coriander, chilipepper, garlic along with 2 tablespoons of the puréed chickpeas into the bowl of the blender and blend until well combined.
4. Spoon the blended mixture into the bowl of puréed chickpeas. Then add the flour, the cumin, the crushed coriander seeds, the baking soda and about one and a half tablespoons of salt. Finally, add some pepper. Combine it all together thoroughly with a spoon. If it looks too dry, a few drops of water can be added.
5. Place the saucepan on the hob and add the oil. Then heat it up on a medium high setting.
6. Take a small amount of the blended mixture in your fingertips and mould into small balls. Then place onto a baking tray. This amount of ingredients should make around twenty five to thirty balls. Kept covered, this mixture will keep for one day in the fridge.
7. The oil should now be hot enough to fry. Individually, spoon half the batch of falafel balls into the oil. Allow to fry for 2 minutes until golden brown, stirring with the slotted spoon, so they brown evenly. Then remove and drain on a tray prepared with some kitchen towel. Now repeat the process with the remaining falafel balls.
Serve and enjoy. The falafel balls are now ready! They are usually served inside pitta bread with tahini, humus, or chopped salad.
Daring Cooks - Beef Wellington
Now while the challenge has been done and I'm too late to post, I did make the dish and made pictures. I'm not happy about my pictures, because I had to make them with the kitchen light on as it was already dark outside. That aside, even though the pictures aren't perfect (I will post them later...) the beef wellington was really nice. I made the pastry myself too! It was a while ago that I made shortcrust pastry, but it was as nice as any other time I made it ages ago. For me the beef wellington was nicer when it was cold. The flavors of the beef came out better that way. And even though the beef was a little overcooked (it's hard to judge whether the meat is done whilst wrapped in a nice pastry ;-) ) it is something I would make again.
Beef Wellington is a preparation of beef tenderloin coated with pâté and duxelles, which is then wrapped in pastry and baked. Some people wrap the coated meat in a herby crêpe to retain the moisture and prevent it making the pastry soggy.
A whole tenderloin may be wrapped and baked, and then sliced for serving, or the tenderloin may be sliced into individual portions prior to wrapping and baking. Many spices may be added to enhance the flavour; some examples are curry, allspice, any grilling mix or ginger.
The 2009 Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Simone of Junglefrog Cooking. Simone chose Salmon en Croute (or alternative recipes for Beef Wellington or Vegetable en Croute) from Good Food Online.
Beef Wellington
Ingredients
250 gram button mushrooms
2-3 tbsp olive oil
1 sprig of thyme
500 - 600 gram beef fillet, center cut piece
1 tbsp mustard
500 gram of short crust pastry (instructions below)
3 slices of nice ham
1-2 tbsp of milk
For the herb crepes
50 gram all purpose flour
125 ml milk
1 tbsp mixed herbs (chopped, I used rosemary, thyme and parsley)
1 egg
0.5 tbsp butter
Method
1. To make the crepes, whizz the flour, egg and milk with a pinch of salt in a blender or processor until smooth. Pour into a jug and stir in the herbs and some seasoning. Leave to rest.
2. Fry the mushrooms in a little oil until they give up all their moisture and it has evaporated, leaving you with a thick paste. Add the thyme leaves and some seasoning and keep cooking for a few minutes. Cool.
3. Stir the melted butter into the crepe batter, heat a 15 cm crepe pan and oil it lightly. Pour in enough batter to make a thin layer on the base of the pan, cook until the top surface sets and then turn over and cook briefly. Remove and repeat with the rest of the batter. This will make a couple more than you need so choose the thinnest ones for the recipe. (Make sure the crepes are big enough to cover your meat!)
4. Sear the beef all over in a little oil in a very hot pan. Brush with the mustard, season and allow to cool.
5. Lay a large sheet of cling-film on a kitchen surface and put two crepes down on it, overlapping a little. Lay over the ham. Spread the mushroom mixture over the ham and put the beef in the centre. Roll the cling-film up, taking the crepe with it, to wrap the beef completely into a nice neat log. Chill for 1 hour.
6. Heat the oven to 200°C/390F. Roll out the pastry, remove the clingfilm and wrap the beef in the pastry like a parcel, with the ends tucked under. Trim to keep it nice and neat. Brush with milk or egg, score with shallow lines across the top and chill for 20 minutes.
7. Cook for 20 minutes. The best way to test if the meat is done to your liking is to neatly and carefully stick a skewer into the beef, count to three and then test it against your inner wrist. If it is cold, the beef will be raw, if it is warm then the beef will be rare and if it’s hot, it’ll be cooked through. Leave to rest for 20 minutes before carving.
Shortcrust pastry
Ingredients
450 gr of all purpose flour
200 gr cold butter
pinch of salt
Method
1. Sift the flour into a large bowl, add the butter and rub in with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
2. Stir in the salt, then add 2-3 tbsp of water and mix to a firm dough. Knead the dough briefly and gently on a floured surface. For best results make sure the butter is very cold.
Beef Wellington is a preparation of beef tenderloin coated with pâté and duxelles, which is then wrapped in pastry and baked. Some people wrap the coated meat in a herby crêpe to retain the moisture and prevent it making the pastry soggy.
A whole tenderloin may be wrapped and baked, and then sliced for serving, or the tenderloin may be sliced into individual portions prior to wrapping and baking. Many spices may be added to enhance the flavour; some examples are curry, allspice, any grilling mix or ginger.
The 2009 Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Simone of Junglefrog Cooking. Simone chose Salmon en Croute (or alternative recipes for Beef Wellington or Vegetable en Croute) from Good Food Online.
Beef Wellington
Ingredients
250 gram button mushrooms
2-3 tbsp olive oil
1 sprig of thyme
500 - 600 gram beef fillet, center cut piece
1 tbsp mustard
500 gram of short crust pastry (instructions below)
3 slices of nice ham
1-2 tbsp of milk
For the herb crepes
50 gram all purpose flour
125 ml milk
1 tbsp mixed herbs (chopped, I used rosemary, thyme and parsley)
1 egg
0.5 tbsp butter
Method
1. To make the crepes, whizz the flour, egg and milk with a pinch of salt in a blender or processor until smooth. Pour into a jug and stir in the herbs and some seasoning. Leave to rest.
2. Fry the mushrooms in a little oil until they give up all their moisture and it has evaporated, leaving you with a thick paste. Add the thyme leaves and some seasoning and keep cooking for a few minutes. Cool.
3. Stir the melted butter into the crepe batter, heat a 15 cm crepe pan and oil it lightly. Pour in enough batter to make a thin layer on the base of the pan, cook until the top surface sets and then turn over and cook briefly. Remove and repeat with the rest of the batter. This will make a couple more than you need so choose the thinnest ones for the recipe. (Make sure the crepes are big enough to cover your meat!)
4. Sear the beef all over in a little oil in a very hot pan. Brush with the mustard, season and allow to cool.
5. Lay a large sheet of cling-film on a kitchen surface and put two crepes down on it, overlapping a little. Lay over the ham. Spread the mushroom mixture over the ham and put the beef in the centre. Roll the cling-film up, taking the crepe with it, to wrap the beef completely into a nice neat log. Chill for 1 hour.
6. Heat the oven to 200°C/390F. Roll out the pastry, remove the clingfilm and wrap the beef in the pastry like a parcel, with the ends tucked under. Trim to keep it nice and neat. Brush with milk or egg, score with shallow lines across the top and chill for 20 minutes.
7. Cook for 20 minutes. The best way to test if the meat is done to your liking is to neatly and carefully stick a skewer into the beef, count to three and then test it against your inner wrist. If it is cold, the beef will be raw, if it is warm then the beef will be rare and if it’s hot, it’ll be cooked through. Leave to rest for 20 minutes before carving.
Shortcrust pastry
Ingredients
450 gr of all purpose flour
200 gr cold butter
pinch of salt
Method
1. Sift the flour into a large bowl, add the butter and rub in with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
2. Stir in the salt, then add 2-3 tbsp of water and mix to a firm dough. Knead the dough briefly and gently on a floured surface. For best results make sure the butter is very cold.
Caramelized Carrot Risotto
But now I have a recipe I would like to share. Last summer I ate my first risotto. When my boyfriends parents were over, we did a big family dinner. My parents, brother, his girlfriend, my boyfriends parents and us two joined each other at our house for dinner. Now what is a nice and easy meal for 8 people? My boyfriends mother and I decided to make risotto. Everyone loved it! And since that summerday I have been meaning to make some more risotto.
Fast forward to a few weeks ago. We were having our monthly potluck dinner with the neighbors again. And I needed to come up with something new and nice. Since we had some carrots left over and the meal needs to be vegetarian I decided to make a caramelized carrot risotto. It was a hit! Everyone loved it. One thing I might have done wrong this go though was that I used the wrong stock. The stock I used was a little bit overpowering. So next time I will make this dish I will try to use a stock that is not so strong and overpowering in flavor.
Caramelized Carrot Risotto - adapted from Yummy Mummy
Ingredients
2 tablespoons of vegetable oil, divided
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
6 medium carrots, peeled and chopped as finely as possible
0.5 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1.2 liter stock (chicken or vegetable)
2 finely chopped onions
300 grams of arborio rice
125 ml of white wine
125 gram of freshly shredded parmesan
2 tablespoons of finely chopped parsley, plus a bit for garnish
Method
1. Heat 1 tbsp. oil and 1 tbsp. butter over medium heat and add carrots. Stir until well coated. Add 125 ml of water, 1/2 tsp. salt, and the sugar; cook 5 minutes or until tender. Continue to cook until water evaporates and carrots are just starting to brown. Reserve half of the carrots. In a blender, purée other half with 200 ml of hot water.
2. Bring stock to a simmer and keep at a simmer, covered, over low heat.
3. Heat remaining oil and butter over medium heat in same (unwashed) pot used for carrots. Add onion and cook until translucent. Add rice, stirring with a wooden spoon to coat rice with oil. Add wine and cook, stirring, until wine evaporates. Add carrot purée and cook, stirring, until mixture no longer looks soupy.
4. Add 125 ml of hot stock, stirring often, until rice absorbs most of the liquid. Repeat process, adding 125 ml of stock at a time and stirring often till each addition is absorbed before adding the next, until rice is al dente (about 20 minutes; at least 250 ml stock will remain).
5. Fold in reserved carrots (save 2 tbsp. for garnish), half of the parmesan and 1 tbsp. parsley. Add up to 250 ml of (75 ml at a time) to loosen the risotto. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
6. Sprinkle each bowl of risotto with some of remaining parmesan, remaining 1 tbsp. parsley, and reserved carrots. Enjoy!
Chilli Jam
About 4 months later he finished it all. As chili jam didn't sound really tasty to me I never tried the jam out of that jar. As my boyfriend ran out of his cherished chili jam he really wanted some new chili jam. Normally his parents send him the products he wants from the UK and can't buy here, by mail, but this is not easy to send a glass jar over the mail. So I offered to make him some. This time, as I had to taste if the jam was good enough, I did try. And it was lovely. The chili jam I made that day didn't last very long as I started eating cheese on toast with chili jam nearly every day and I had to make new. Also I gave one jar away to my best friend so he could try and he loved it as much as I did. He has been asking for more for a couple of weeks now and as we ran out too I spend today in the kitchen to cook us another bigger batch of this delicious jam.
This post will be this weeks entry for Weekend Herb Blogging. This week it is hosted by Cinzia of Cindystar.
Chili Jam (adapted from bbc good food)
Ingredients
8 red peppers, deseeded and finely chopped
10 red chillies, finely chopped (with seeds)
finger-sized piece fresh root ginger , peeled and roughly chopped
8 garlic cloves, peeled
400 gram can cherry tomatoes
750 gram caster sugar
250 ml red wine vinegar
Method
1. Tip the peppers, chillies (with seeds), tomatoes, ginger and garlic into a food processor, then whizz until pureed.
2. Scrape into a heavy-bottomed pan with sugar and vinegar, then bring everything to the boil. Skim off any scum that comes to the surface, then turn the heat down to a simmer and cook until it becomes sticky, stirring occasionally.
3. Once the jam is becoming sticky, continue cooking for 10-15 mins more, stirring frequently so that it doesn't catch and burn. It should now look like thick, bubbling lava.
4. Cool slightly, transfer to sterilised jars, then leave to cool completely.
Serve with some cheese, or with with your sunday roast or other cut meats.The jam will keep for 3 months in a cool, dark cupboard - refrigerate once opened. Enjoy!
Daring Cooks - Vietnamese Chicken Pho
I was quite excited about this challenge. It was my first daring cook challenge, and I immediately decided i was going to do the long version of the recipe. Which included chopping up a chicken carcass and making my own chicken stock. Two things i had never done before. Especially chopping up the chicken was going to be a challenge. I hate bones, I cant stand the feeling of bones on my teeth, and the cracking noise bones make when you break them gives me shivers down my spine. But I was going to try anyway, its called daring cooks for a reason right?
So there I was, standing in the kitchen with a sharpened big knife. Looking at the chicken, and wondering where to start. I got the chicken breast off with some help of my boyfriend in the end. Next was chopping it up... It took me some time to find the courage to start chopping. It even took my boyfriend to show how to do it and tell me I could do it to start! But in the end it was all good and I'm proud that I did it.
So what is Vietnamese Pho? Well, it’s a delicious noodle soup popular in Vietnam. The broth is simmered for hours and hours with either beef knuckle/leg bone or with a whole chicken. Other accompaniments include ribbons of rice noodles, fresh herbs like cilantro or basil, a wedge of lime or lemon, fresh bean sprouts and fresh sliced chilies if desired.
What makes Pho so different than any other type of noodle soup is the spices that go into the simmering broth. Warm spices like coriander, star anise, cloves and fresh ginger transform an ordinary broth into a very authentic Vietnamese Pho.
Our challenge focused on Chicken Pho, or “Pho Ga” in Vietnamese. By the way, the correct pronunciation of Pho is “fuh?” Yes, you say the word like it’s a question!
Some of the secrets to making great Chicken Pho is:
1) Toast the spices and char the onion and ginger. This brings out the flavor and fragrance of these ingredients!
2) If you’re cooking the longer recipe make sure you’re pre-boiling the chicken first – give it a hard boil for a few minutes to get rid of the scum and stuff in the chicken. This will help you create a crystal clear, clean broth.
The spices for Chicken Pho is whole coriander seeds, whole cloves and whole star anise – they should be easily found in your grocery store.
An essential component of Pho is fish sauce. Make your best effort to find fish sauce – your local Asian market should carry it. And if not, visit your local Thai or Vietnamese restaurant and see if you can buy a bottle from them. Soy sauce is a poor substitute for fish sauce, but if you can’t find fish sauce, then go ahead and make the sub.
I used this recipe http://steamykitchen.com/139-vietnamese-chicken-noodle-soup-pho-ga.html. Below is the recipe for if you don't want to make your own stock
Vietnamese Chicken Pho (recipe Source: Jaden of Steamy Kitchen from her new book The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook.)
Ingredients:
For the Chicken Pho Broth:
2 tbsp. whole coriander seeds
4 whole cloves
2 whole star anise
2 quarts (2 liters/8 cups/64 fluid ounces) store-bought or homemade chicken stock
1 whole chicken breast (bone in or boneless)
½ onion
1 3-inch (7.5 cm) chunk of ginger, sliced and smashed with side of knife
1 to 2 tbsps. sugar
1 to 2 tbsps. fish sauce
1 lb. (500 grams/16 ounces) dried rice noodles (about ¼ inch/6 mm wide)
Accompaniments:
2 cups (200 grams/7 ounces) bean sprouts, washed and tails pinched off
Fresh cilantro (coriander) tops (leaves and tender stems)
½ cup (50 grams/approx. 2 ounces) shaved red onions
½ lime, cut into 4 wedges
Sriracha chili sauce
Hoisin sauce
Sliced fresh chili peppers of your choice
Method:
1. To make the Chicken Pho Broth: heat a frying pan over medium heat. Add the coriander seeds, cloves and star anise and toast until fragrant, about 3-4 minutes. Immediately spoon out the spices to avoid burning.
2. In a large pot, add all the ingredients (including the toasted spices) and bring to a boil.
3. Reduce the heat to medium-low and let simmer for 20 minutes, skimming the surface frequently.
4. Use tongs to remove the chicken breasts and shred the meat with your fingers, discarding the bone if you have used bone-in breasts.
5. Taste the broth and add more fish sauce or sugar, if needed. Strain the broth and discard the solids.
6. Prepare the noodles as per directions on the package.
7. Ladle the broth into bowls. Then divide the shredded chicken breast and the soft noodles evenly into each bowl.
8. Have the accompaniments spread out on the table. Each person can customize their own bowl with these ingredients. Enjoy!
Chocolate Palmiers
So I went looking for an easy recipe that was going to be tasty and sweet. With me having a sweet tooth, I went to google and quickly found several recipe's and movies on how to make chocolate palmiers. These little hart shaped cookies are really delicious and I'll eat these anytime! They are baked until the sugar thats on and in them is caramelized. Which makes them absolutely yummy!
Palmiers
Ingredients
250 gram of puff pastry
130 gram of sugar
3 tablespoons of cocoapowder
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees Celcius. Line a large baking tray with parchment paper and set aside.
2. Mix the sugar and the cocoa powder.
3. Sprinkle about half of the sugar mixture over the work surface and place the pastry on top. Sprinkle the other half of the sugar mixture over the puff pastry. Try to leave some sugar for later. With your rolling pin gently press the sugar into the pastry.
4. Roll out the pastry a bit more so it is in a nice square shape. Turn the pastry over often to make sure most of the sugar goes into the pastry. Fold the top and bottom edges of the pastry about a third of the way toward the center, then fold each edge over again, leaving about 1 cm space in the center. Finally, fold one side over the other making a long narrow pastry rectangle with 6 layers.
5. Cut off the edges of the pastry and discard. Cut the remaining pastry into slices about 1 centimeter thick. If you had any sugar left over dip the cut edges into the mixture. Gently press the bottom of the palmier together and open the top bit a bit. This will make a nicer palmier shape. Place the slices, with the cut side down onto the baking tray and refrigerate for about 30 minutes. Make sure there is enough room between the palmiers as they will expand quite a bit.
6. When the pastry is nice and cold again, and the oven is properly preheated put the palmiers into the middle of the oven and bake for 20 minutes or untill the sugar is fully caramelized. Take them out of the oven and place on a cooling rack. They are tasty both hot or cold. Enjoy!
Daring Bakers - Vols au Vent
So at first I didnt feel intimidated by trying my first Daring Bakers challenge... but when I started seeing the pictures of others on the forum, I felt more and more scared. I had all the ingredients in the house, but it took me another week to gain enough confidence to actually give it a shot.
At first it was ok, I had some problems with the butter being too soft but the turns went ok. Although after the 3rd or 4th turn the dough got a bit sticky and butter seemed to be oozing a bit. I did the 5th turn like that too, and then my boyfriend needed the kitchen and I forgot about the pastry. I picked it up again after 1.5 days and the dough was soo much better to work with. It was really cold, and no more stickyness or butter oozing. And I started wishing I knew this before hand so my pastry would be better.
The first vol au vents I made didn't really rise much. There was butter all over the parchement paper, but it didnt really help my pastry rise, and it even felt undercooked.
The second try I made sure the pastry was really cold, and the oven was nice and hot, but the vol au vents still didn't really rise like some of the ones I have seen at others.
Still it was great to make these, and become part of the Daring Bakers. I will definitely give the vol au vents another go. And maybe to 2 rings instead of 1 to see if that works better. If anything they were really tasty! It was my first time working with puffpastry, and it was a lot of fun, eventho it was frustrating at times.
Some really good movies on how to make puffpastry are:
http://video.pbs.org/video/1174110297/search/Pastry
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8aa8e8kk3E
Puffpastry
Ingredients
Makes 2 ½ pounds dough
354 gram unbleached all-purpose flour
142 gram cake flour (substitute with normal all purpose flour -2 tablespoons flour +2 tablespoons of cornstarch)
1 tbsp. salt (you can cut this by half for a less salty dough or for sweet preparations)
300 ml ice water
454 gram very cold unsalted butter
Plus extra flour for dusting work surface
Method
Mix 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.
Incorporate the butter:
Unwrap the dough and place it on a work surface dusted with the 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.
Make 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 50 cm / 24″ (don’t worry about the width of the rectangle: if you get the 50cm / 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.
Chill 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.
Form and bake the vols-au-vent:
Yield: 1/3 of the puff pastry recipe above 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 some egg wash (1 egg or yolk beaten with a teaspoon of water or milk)
Line a baking sheet with parchment or silicone mat 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 the 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 or freeze 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 the top of the shells. This will help them rise evenly. Bake the shells until they have risen and begin to brown, about 10-20 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 the 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.
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 the frozen, egg-washing them first).
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