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.
When I learned about September's challenge I was both excited and frightened. You see, I love puff pastry, but have never thought about making it myself. Last weekend I decided to devote part of my Saturday to making the puff pastry and then bake it on Sunday.
If you want the exact recipe and directions, let me know and I'll send them to you: they are a bit too lengthy to post here.
Basically, you combine flour with water to make part of the dough. You then put flattened butter in the middle of the dough and close it up. Then roll it, fold it, roll it, refrigerate it, and repeat 6 times ;)
You then roll out the dough and cut out circles from it. Then you cut out a smaller circle out of the large ones and stack the "doughnut" shaped ones on top of full circles. Make some little holes in the full circle, brush everything carefully with an egg wash and bake. The dough rose in the oven quite a bit and was really flaky! (My pictures turned out ridiculously poor this time around.)
For the savory filling I made sauteed mushrooms with onion, bacon and thyme.
For the sweet filling, I used fresh figs, raspberries and home-made whipped cream.
I still have quite a bit of the dough in my freezer, so make sure to check back in at a later date for more puff pastry projects.
24 comments:
They look amazing Olga. Love the choice of filling with the mushrooms and the fresh figs are equally delicious ofcourse! There's really loads you can do with the pastry although I did find it a bit heavy on the stomach!
They look beautiful! I love your fillings. Somehow I had no leftover puff pastry dough... but I wish I did because I want to make more of these!
Given how tricky puff pastry can be (for photos) I think you did a marvelous job. I didn't participate in this challenge but when I bake them at least half look like the leaning tower. Have a great day.
They look beautiful in both versions! Great job again:)
How beautiful Olga, I also filled one of them with mushrooms.
great job loving these oh and the fig one looks divine
The savory one looks divine! Good job, Olga : )
Wow, both of these are absolute beauties. I dont know which i'd rather eat :)
Oooh! The sweet one looks so pretty! I've always been nervous of trying to make a puff pastry and yours looks great Olga!!
love the header!
Beautiful pastry and delicious filings. I too was excited when I read about this challenge. Great job.
Well done!!! I love how a lot of people used figs. I'm so curious as to how that would have tasted!
Bravo :)
Looks really good! Excellent job.
Very nice banner.
Paz
Love the figs, so yummy looking
You did it! The pastries look wonderful, great choice of fillings!
This challenge WAS a bit frightening. Yours turned out so well. And your fillings look delicious! Mushrooms, bacon, and thyme...yum!
You did such a great job! I can't wait to make mine (soon-ish)
Your fillings sound delicious!! I love how they rose =D Wonderful job!
I love the last picture with the figs, raspberries and cream--beautiful! :)
The puff pastry looks so delicious and fluffy!
Your puff pastry looks soo beautiful! Great job.
Olga PPP - Perfect Puff Pastry! Beautiful vols au vent, and the mushroom filling is mouth watering. However, raspberries and figs with whipped cream is screaming my name! I make a raspberry, fig or date pie with whipped cream on the side, and that's what it's conjuring up now. Beautifully done as always!
Mmmm...I love the filling you've chosen! Your puff pastry looks perfect! YUM! :)
Yum! Nice pics!
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