Best Vol Au Vents Puff Pastry Recipe | Simple. Tasty. Good. (2024)

FAQs

Is vol-au-vent pastry same as puff pastry? ›

Vol-au-vents are puff pastry cases that have a hollow center. They're baked until golden and cooled until crisp. Then the shells are filled with just about any filling you can dream up.

Always preheat your oven for a minimum of 15-20 minutes before baking, because Puff Pastry depends on even heat to rise and puff. Place pastries 1 inch apart. If you want a flaky thin and crispy pastry that's not very puffy, prick the unbaked Puff Pastry all over with a fork, which lets steam escape while baking.

The keys to ensuring that you get crisp, flaky layers from your pastry are concerned with temperature and handling. Pastry should be at room temperature for rolling (to make it more pliable), but chilled before baking (so the buttery layers remain separate).

Roll out a block of puff pastry to a thickness of 5mm/¼in. With a pastry cutter, cut out the vol-au-vents to the size you want. Remove the excess pastry. This can be rerolled to make more vol-au-vents.

I'm delighted to share the news that vol-au-vents are back. These little towers of puff pastry with their jaunty lids have slipped off many menus over the past few years. They had been a central part of buffets, wedding banquets and festive platters for years.

So where does puff pastry come from. Well it comes from France, where it is called pâte feuilletée. It was invented in 1645 by Claudius Gele, a pastry cook apprentice. He wanted to bake an improved bread for his father who was sick and was on a diet of flour, butter and water.

The Los Angeles Times notes that butter can still be used as a "wash," but it yields different results than egg: Instead of imparting color or crispness, it offers a more luxurious flavor and softness.

Egg wash is the most reliable but it can be very thick and sticky. Milk wash will go on more evenly but it can soak into pastry and make it weaker. Melted butter works nicely after the crust has set but it can make the crust greasy and weaker.

But there are two much more important perks to using vinegar: it provides a little insurance against overworking the dough. And, that splash of vinegar will keep your dough from oxidizing and turning gray.

Heat is the enemy of Puff Pastry—it handles best when cold. So avoid working with it on hot, humid days, in a stifling hot kitchen or next to your oven.

What is the secret of good pastry? ›

Chill time

A step you should never miss is chilling the dough after you make it (regardless on whether it's elastic or not). It's also a good idea to do it before once you've assembled your pastry creation, before baking. This also sets the butter, and helps the pastry to keep its shape in the oven.

Vol-au-vents

If you don't allow it to dry, the egg wash can run down the side of the pastry and stop it from rising. Secondly, to make sure your vol-au-vents all rise to the same height, place a tart tin in each corner of the tray, with a sheet of baking paper on top and then a wire rack.

To create a tart with an extra puffy crust: take a knife and score two lines around the edge, then prick the area inside this border with a fork. Puff Pastry fillings should be at room temperature. If they're hot, they can begin to melt the pastry layers, which will affect the pastry's ability to rise and puff.

Phyllo dough can be a great substitute for puff pastry in dishes like spanakopita and baklava [2].

Like puff pastry, phyllo is used for both sweet and savory dishes. Perhaps the most famous dish made with phyllo is spanakopita or the famed baklava found in Greece, Turkey, and other Middle Eastern countries.

Puff pastry, also known as pâte feuilletée, is a flaky light pastry made from a laminated dough composed of dough (détrempe) and butter or other solid fat (beurrage). The butter is put inside the dough (or vice versa), making a paton that is repeatedly folded and rolled out before baking.

Phyllo dough and puff pastry are both thin pastry crusts, but bakers typically make puff pastry with butter or shortening and use oil to make phyllo dough.