Vanilla Lemon Custard Vols-au-Vent

One of my favorite movies is the movie Babette’s Feast, a Danish film that tells the story of two sisters, Philippa and Martina, who take Babette Hersant, a refugee from France, into their home as their cook.

The father of the sisters was the founding pastor of a Christian sect of which the sisters keep alive among a small aging congregation.  Fourteen years later, Babette wins the lottery and spends the money on creating an exquisite French feast for the sisters and the members of their congregation in celebration of what would have been their father’s hundredth birthday if he had still been alive.  The best part of the movie is the preparation and subsequent serving of the meal.  Babette works out of a small old-fashioned kitchen, bustling around in a starched white apron, brandishing old copper pots with ease as she whips together a menu that any lover of food would die to get a bite of.  One of the dishes she prepares is called “Caille en Sarcophage” (quail in puff pastry shell with foie gras and truffle sauce).  She carefully cuts out the roundes of puff pastry using a glass and bakes them.

Then she stuffs the quail with foie gras and slices of truffle (drool!) and arranges them in the puff pastry shells so that the heads and feet are sticking out either end, then into the oven they go.  When she pulls them out they are a beautiful golden brown and she ladels some of the juices onto the plates that they go out on.  The first time I saw Babette’s Feast I was in the middle of finishing my undergrad degree in French, and the International Cinema at my university was showing the movie.  The scene of Babette preparing that dish stuck with me.

While living in Paris I went out to dinner one night with friends and on the menu saw that one of the options was “Vols-au-Vent” and I immediately knew what I would be eating.  Vols-au-Vent are small cases of puff pastry that can be filled with a variety of fillings. Caille en Sarcophage is one such filling.  The vol-au-vent that I ate that night was filled with a creamy cheese filling, and I remember having to restrain myself from licking my fingers and the plate because it was so delicious.

I was so excited when I saw that this month’s Daring Bakers’ Challenge was Vols-au-Vent.  I had a million different ideas for what I wanted to fill them with, but ultimately ended up filling them with a sweet filling.

I filled them with a lemon vanilla custard and topped them off with a ripe raspberry as a farewell to summer.  Although Southern California is far from acting like Fall has arrived, the produce section says otherwise–filling up with gorgeous squash, pumpkins, and apples that are just screaming to be used.

The best part about making vols-au-vent is the puff pastry.  It is deceptively easy.  The process requires you to wrap a whole lot of butter in dough like you are wrapping a gift.

Then you use a rolling pin to carefully roll it out into a larger rectangle.

Then you fold the rectangle into thirds and roll it out again.

Each time you do this it is called a turn.  The trick is keeping the butter firm enough that it doesn’t start melting so that in the end you get paper thin layers of dough and butter.  The difficulty is in doing the dance between refrigeration time and rolling out your dough for each turn.  I find that if I’m in a rush my puff pastry dough tends to be a disaster.  But if I take things nice and slow, taking long breaks if needs be, then my dough comes together easily.  The result is so worth it.  Flakey buttery layers of pastry encasing your chosen filling–sheer heaven!

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.

If you would like to channel your “Inner Babette” and make some vols-au-vent for yourself, here’s a printable link to the recipe for puff pastry, as well as instructions for forming vol-au-vents and some extra tips.  In addition there is a wonderful on-line video from the PBS show “Baking with Julia” in which Michel Richard and Julia Child demonstrate making puff pastry dough.