Daring Bakers: Vols-au-Vent

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.

Well this is my first Daring Bakers challenge and I am really excited to be a part of this group although I wasn't thrilled making my own puff pastry especially not with the insane hot weather going on here. But I tried anyway and was actually quite disappointed, I'm not sure what went wrong I just know that my little puff pastry cups rose very uneven while baking them and didn't get enough hollow room to fill them.

But I kept on going and made a whipped white chocolate ganache with crushed coffee beans and an espresso sauce, those were really good!

Why didn't you guys rise evenly?....

Even though I docked the little caps they really puffed up!

Whipped White Chocolate Ganache:

500 ml heavy cream (two times 250 ml)

250 gr white chocolate

about 20 chocolate covered coffee beans, crushed

Espresso Sauce:

1 ½ cups espresso

¾ cup sugar

Ganache-

In a small saucepan heat up the first amount (250 ml) of heavy cream, don't let it come to a boil, when it starts bubbling up take it off the heat and pour it straight over the white chocolate, wait a few seconds and then start stirring until you get a smooth cream. Cover it and let it get completely cold (cool for atleast 4 hours, preferably overnight.)

After the mixture is cool, place it in a bowl of an electric mixer add the second amount of heavy cream (250 ml) and mix on high speed (like you would make whipped cream), it should be pretty stiff but be careful not to over mix it! Especially when using an electric stand mixer- it can turn very quickly into butter.

After ganache is ready fold in crushed coffee beans.

Sauce-

In a small saucepan heat up sugar and coffee and cook until all the sugar has melted and acts like a runny caramel, set a side to cool.

For the complete recipe of Michel Richard’s Puff Pastry Dough and how to shape the Vols-au-Vent go to The Daring Kitchen filed under recipe archive.