Daring Bakers' September Challenge - Vols-au-Vent With Michel Richard's Puff Pastry Dough!!!

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.

After being gone for 2 months, and another half a month to recover from jet lag and a horrible cough... I'm FINALLY back to participate in my Daring Bakers Challenge!!! And what do you know, when you have missed out so much, this is what you get - PUFF PASTRY DOUGH!!! (yikes)

This is NOT something I have on my "wish to try" list. There's always the convenience of going to the frozen isle in the grocery store and just pick it up. Plus, the fact that you have to wrap the whole chunk of butter in the dough, and making sure the butter doesn't get too soft or it'd oozed out, and folding the dough "this way and that way" for X amount of times --- ai-ya-ya...definitely not for the lazy person that I am, and not for someone who, without fail, get distracted by the kids every 5 minutes ONLY WHEN I'm cooking/baking, cos' by the end I'd really be Huffing and PUFFING on the dough! :P

However, I AM A DARING BAKER! :P (LOL) and a procrastinator, in case you forgot. So I didn't start until 2 days before the dateline. I didn't think much about what I was gonna fill them with. Instead I was worrying about how will the puff pastry turn out! :P

Anyhow, I started with whacking the sticks of butter down, before I prepare the dough, so that the butter can stay cool in the fridge while I prepare the dough. However, I have to warn you that, if you have your kids' pet fishes' bowl(s) sitting on your kitchen counter top, like ME...do give them a warning that you'll be smacking something on the counter top, so that they don't get a heart attack and die. Not to worry...no fish were harm in the process of making this puff pastry...just 3 fishes puffing and huffing out of fear of the crazy mom with a giant rolling pin whacking the hell out of the butter! I did thought about moving them away...but by the time I realized they (especially the 2 gold fish) were "scurrying" about in the bowl, I was almost done with the butter! I think the beta could careless!

The frighten fishes!

I have to say, I was surprise how easy the dough was to work with! It doesn't tear, it just stretches wherever you want it to go! :)

Now, if you're short like me and has a counter top for the average Americans, you'd need your kid's step stool to roll this dough!

The good old Ikea step stool!

I was really happy when none of the butter oozed out in between the turns. I was planning on having it for dinner, so time was sorta short. Occasionally, instead of placing the dough in the fridge in between turns, I've put it in the freezer for about 20-30 minutes --- and the dough was still soft and really nice to work with. When it came to splitting the dough, I was so excited to see the layers actually forming... :)

According to the instruction, right before you place the cut out doughs into the preheated oven, you should place a silicon baking mat or parchment on top of the doughs to help even rising. That was what I did. However, mine was a mess! See how my dough was D-R-A-G-E-D along as I tried to lift up the top mat??!!! *sigh*


Thank goodness I still had left over dough in the fridge, and I still had time to go on the DB forum to ask for help. Steph was quick to come to the rescue --- my oven was probably not hot enough. Hmm....this is a wonderful excuse for me to get a oven thermometer! ;P I also managed to skim through some other members' Q&A. And I came across Audax's suggestion on preheating the oven 20 degrees hotter than what it calls for in the recipe, as the dough needed the hot temperature to create the steam to puff the layers.

I did managed to salvage one decent looking Vols-au-Vent shell for the photo taking purpose. I made scrambled eggs with chives and bacon for the filling, and serve with a side of salad. That was our dinner.

Then yesterday afternoon, I rolled out my left over dough. This time, I raised the oven temperature to 420F. I did leave the mat sitting on top of the dough longer than the 15 minutes as suggested in the recipe. I waited until the dough started to brown lightly, only then I carefully remove the mat. However, for some reason, I had forgotten to placed the cut rings on top of the base to create the well for the fillings!!!! What an idiot!!! *shaking my head*

Oh well, so this morning we had our Vols-au-Vent (without a well) with brie and seasoned lox, and the other also with brie, with marmalade (Yesmin and I gobbled it down before I could take a photo! :P).

The vols-au-vent without the well!! : |

They really filled us up, so, even though I made a dessert Vols-au-Vent with mascarpone and blackberries on a bed of raspberry sauce, we haven't actually tried it YET. None of us could put another bite in, and I didn't wanna keep it till dinner as the pastry might get soggy...so I tried calling my neighbor :) Glad she was home. We shall be trying ours tomorrow night.

Mascarpone with Blackberries and raspberry sauce... you can't really see the base of the vols-au-vent here, but there's the BIG ring that I had forgotten to place on top of the base before baking! :P

So, in case you are interested in giving a try on puff pastry, click HERE for the recipe. I would encourage you to give it a try, because, there's a BIG difference between the TASTE of the homemade puff pastry, and the store bought ones!!

Thanks Steph, for this challenge that I NEVER thought I could achieve.