Daring Bakers, September: Vols-au-Vent

Once again, it's time for my Daring Bakers post! At the beginning of the month, the DBers are assigned a secret baking project, and at the end of the month, they post their results en masse!



The September 2009 Daring Bakers' Challenge has been chosen by Steph of a whisk and a spoon. Steph chose Vols-au-Vent, which we are pretty sure in French means, "After one bite we could die and go to heaven!"

The recipe is behind the link above.

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Daring Bakers, September: Vols-au-Vent
Mine had beet salad with lemon vinaigrette as a starter . . .

Daring Bakers, September: Vols-au-Vent
. . . and banana sorbet with banana pudding as dessert. It worked.

Daring Bakers, September: Vols-au-Vent
Although the sludge of puddin' wasn't so cute. A lesson for next time! ;D

Daring Bakers, September: Vols-au-Vent
Here's the dimply dough, fresh out of the food processor, and scored so it will chill faster (I think. Or just to help you vent out any frustrations with some stabby stabby action.)

Daring Bakers, September: Vols-au-Vent
And here's the butter block that you'll encase with dough. It won't look all that different once it's on your hips after you consume it. HA! In all seriousness, this is the only laminated dough recipe I've ever followed that made me use such a thick block of dough, straight cold.

Daring Bakers, September: Vols-au-Vent
You just roll your dough into a square, and gift-wrap your butter block. Then howl in anguish as you start to roll it out and see cold, sharp butter bits piece and ooze through your dough and all over your nice granite counter tops. If/When that happens, just tamp some flour down onto the oozy butter, and keep rolling as if it doesn't bother you.

Daring Bakers, September: Vols-au-Vent
The hollows for the large and small vols-au-vent, along with lids for the small vols-au-vent (though some of my guests decided to chomp them as biscuits before dinner). I got the most mileage out of my dough this way.

Daring Bakers, September: Vols-au-Vent
Look upon my splurge: up until this project, I'd baked on silicone sheets, which are fine, but much heavier than Silpats. I bought a Silpat just for this project. Lay it over the top of your vols-au-vent to help them rise evenly. Otherwise, your vols-au-vent may go all wonky-slinky like.

Daring Bakers, September: Vols-au-Vent
Stack your scraps vertically, and roll it all down into a sheet to reuse. To freeze, just fold it into thirds and wrap it well, just like the puff pastry dough you get from the grocery.

Check out my fellow DBers' results by tracking them through our blogroll: click here

Comments

kat said…
Good idea using it to hold a salad
Angelica said…
Your vol au vents turned out so neat i could eat them as cookies. THey look wonderful. Good job!
Marvin said…
Awesome, they're like pastry bowls of goodness in which you place more goodness in. And holy cow that's a lot of butter!
Ken Sloan said…
How lovely :) I've made vol au vents a couple of times and don't think I've ever actually eaten one. Same with terrines! I've been cheated, it would seem.

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