Vol-au-vents from puff pastry pastries. Filled flounces

Vol-au-vents are a great, lighter and more effective alternative to tartlets and sandwiches. These are such empty (without filling) puff pastry cups of various shapes and sizes. You can buy these cups ready-made or make them yourself. Vol-au-vents are formed from puff pastry. I made a recipe with a photo for those who still doubt whether it is worth messing with their pastries. For me, the answer is obvious - definitely worth it! Vol-au-vents are fast and very easy! To bake your own vol-au-vents, you only need ready-made puff pastry and an egg. All! The shape of the vol-au-vents can be given any. Round ones are a classic, and we will do such. The size is also customizable. Mini vol-au-vents look very impressive, but they don’t include a lot of stuffing. Again, larger flounces are much more convenient to stuff, but not so convenient to eat. And finally, the filling. Due to the fact that the puff pastry has a neutral taste, you can really fill the flounces with anything: ready-made salads, pates, caviar, meat, fish and mushroom appetizers, desserts ... In general, it all depends on your desire!

Ingredients:

• puff pastry (yeast-free) - 500 g,
• egg - 1 pc.
• flour - a handful for dusting (if necessary).

How to make puff pastry vol-au-vents

Remove the puff pastry from the package and leave, covered with a film, until it thaws. I had two rectangular layers in the package, which took about 20 minutes to completely defrost. Sprinkle a little flour on the working surface and roll out a layer of puff pastry up to 3-4 mm thick. We roll out the dough like this: put the rolling pin in the middle of the layer, then roll it away from us, again the rolling pin in the middle and move towards ourselves.

Now we take a mold, with the help of which we will cut out the base-bottom of the flounce. This is an ordinary glass for me, but absolutely any object that has the shape and size you need will fit. I got 6 circles from one layer, I rolled out the second one a little thinner, and it turned out 9 circles.

We leave six rounds as they are, and from the rest we form the walls of our flounces. To do this, take a form of a smaller diameter (I used a glass) and cut out the rings with it.

On top of the bases of future vol-au-vents smeared with egg, we lay the rings. Their tops are also immediately lubricated with an egg.

Since I got nine puff pastry rings and six bases, I made three flounces with walls of one ring, and three with walls of two.

Well, so that the scraps of dough do not disappear, I twisted the flagella from them and laid them in a ring on those flounces that are lower. All layers, so that they are securely glued to each other, be sure to coat with an egg. Moreover, you need to smear only the top, if you miss the sides, the slices can stick together and the puff pastry will open poorly and unevenly. As a result, the walls of the cups will not rise well.

That's it, now we load the baking sheet with the formed vol-au-vents into the oven preheated to 170-180 degrees. The flounces are baked quickly and, as soon as they are browned enough, you can take them out. Rudiness is determined by the tops, because the walls were not smeared with an egg, they will remain pale.

We let the finished vol-au-vents cool, then we crush the bottom (it exfoliates and rises along with the walls during baking) and you can fill the vol-au-vents with the filling to your taste.

Probably, many hostesses prepare snacks using tartlets for a festive feast. I sometimes prefer an alternative version of such an appetizer, making puff pastry flounces. After all, it’s not always possible to find tartlets that are suitable in size in the store, therefore, it’s easier for me to cook them myself at home from puff pastry. I will share with you in this recipe how to bake stuffed flounces.

I prepare the necessary ingredients for a snack:

• yeast-free puff pastry - 250 gr;
• chicken egg - 1 piece;
• flour for sprinkling - 1 teaspoon;
• any filling - to taste.

How to cook puff pastry vol-au-vents with red caviar

Puff pastry for vol-au-vents must be defrosted. I just take it out of the freezer ahead of time. I defrost at room temperature. I spread a layer of dough on the surface of the table, which I sprinkle with flour. I roll out the dough a little thinner.

Using a culinary ring or a regular glass, I cut out an even number of circles.

I transfer half of the circles to a baking sheet, which is better to cover with parchment paper.

On the remaining circles I make holes in the center. It is more convenient to do them with a glass or a small lid.

I grease the mugs on a baking sheet with an egg, which you just need to beat with a fork.

I put circles with holes on them. I also brush the top and sides with beaten egg.

In an oven preheated to 180 degrees, I bake the flounces for 20 minutes.

I cool the finished cake, press the middle with my finger. You can fill the flounces with any filling. This time I have red caviar. 🙂

When serving a snack on the table, do not forget to decorate with fresh herbs. Bon appetit!

Do not rush to throw away the leftover dough. Pieces and circles can simply be baked in the oven, and then sprinkled with sweet powder. In one fell swoop you get a beautiful and tasty snack and dessert for tea drinking.

Why flounces are a great format:

1. Prepare easily and quickly. If the dough is defrosted in advance, then molding and baking will take no more than 30 minutes.
2. Baked without molds. Unlike tartlets and baskets, vol-au-vents do not need special forms, they are baked on a baking sheet.
3. The shape and size of the vol-au-vents can be different: round, oval, square, from 3 cm to 6 cm, depending on what molds you have at hand.
4. "Puff cups" can be baked in advance and filled just before serving.
5. Compared to waffle tartlets, stuffed vol-au-vents do not soak longer and do not lose their appearance, they look appetizing.

Today I will tell you how to cook vol-au-vents at home from ready-made puff pastry. And I will share the recipes for the three most popular fillings for vol-au-vents: with mushrooms, chicken and sprats.

Total cooking time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes
Yield: 10-20 pcs.

Ingredients

• yeast-free puff pastry - 500 g
• chicken egg - 1 pc.

How to cook stuffed vol-au-vents

We need puff pastry without yeast, you can cook it yourself or buy ready-made, rolled out into thin sheets. I completely thawed the dough on the table, at room temperature. So that during this time it does not dry out from above, I recommend covering it with cling film or a bag. The layer should be approximately 3 mm thick. If necessary, you can roll it out a little - always in one direction, from the center, so as not to disturb the puff qualities of the dough.

Next, we need 2 cuttings for the dough - one with a diameter of 3-5 cm (glass, ring), and the other about 1 cm smaller (stack, lid, etc.). Cut out circles from the dough with a large circle. It is not necessary to use exactly round shapes for cutting blanks, any that you have will do: square, oval, stars, and so on. You should get an even number of blanks.

We leave half of the blanks whole - this will be the bottom of the vol-au-vents. And the remaining blanks are pressed through by cutting a smaller diameter.

The result will be thin rings that will serve as the walls of our "puff cups". You will also have very small mugs that can be baked and then used to make mini snacks with pate or other spread, they will look very pretty on the table.

I moved the whole base circles onto a piece of parchment. I smeared the edge with a loose egg (for gluing the layers of dough) and laid out the rings on top.

Then she brushed the flounces with egg. I pricked the bottoms 3-4 times with a fork so that they rise so much.

I sent the baking sheet to the oven, preheated to 200 degrees. Bake for 15-20 minutes depending on size. The puff pastry will rise in the oven, resulting in tall and crispy cups. If the bottoms have risen very much, then they can be slightly pressed down with a rolling pin, mortar, round handle from a ladle, or something similar.

If your dough suddenly grew too much or the top fell sideways during baking, then do not be discouraged - while the dough is still warm and soft, it can be adjusted. We take a hot vol-au-vent, you can even without removing the baking sheet from the oven (only very carefully!), And lightly correct the top that has moved down, press it down with the palm of your hand. The dough will eventually settle and become like a glass.

The flounces should be completely cool, transfer them to a dish or tray on which we will serve (they are fragile, so be careful). It's time for the toppings!

Vol-au-vents with champignons

Mushroom filling can be prepared separately or combined with fried chicken fillet pieces, it will turn out no less tasty.

Ingredients

• fresh or frozen champignons - 200 g;
• onion - 1 pc.;
• butter - 20 g;
• vegetable oil - 1 tbsp. l.;
• sour cream or cream - 1 tbsp. l.;
• salt, pepper, ground nutmeg - to taste.

I cut the mushrooms into small pieces, chopped the onion into a cube. I heated a mixture of butter and vegetable oil in a frying pan, fried the onions until soft, and then the mushrooms. Fry everything together, stirring occasionally, until all the moisture is gone from the pan. Then she added salt, pepper and nutmeg, a spoonful of non-acid fatty sour cream. The fire was reduced and extinguished for another 3-4 minutes. I filled the flounces with the cooled filling (it is better to fill it immediately before serving).

Vol-au-vents with chicken and cheese

Spicy and spicy chicken filling goes well with crispy puff pastry. Equally tasty both warm and cold. Oddly enough, it tastes a bit like pork.

Ingredients

• chicken fillet - 200 g;
• onions - 1 pc.;
• vegetable oil - 1-2 tbsp. l.;
• hard cheese - 50 g;
• ground sweet paprika - 0.5 tsp;
• salt, ground hot pepper - to taste.

I cut the chicken fillet into a medium cube, chopped the onion a little smaller. I heated some vegetable oil in a frying pan and sautéed the onion. Then I added the meat, salted it, peppered it, sprinkled it with sweet ground paprika and hot chili pepper (the amount can be freely adjusted to taste). Fry for another 5 minutes, until the chicken is fully cooked. Removed from heat, added chopped cheese on a fine grater, mixed. Served vol-au-vents with chicken, garnished with herbs and chili.

Vol-au-vents with sprats

The fish filling can be classic, that is, from sprats, boiled eggs and processed cheese, when everything is ground on a grater. Or simplified, without an egg. It is better to start mini-glasses, for one bite.

Ingredients

• sprats in oil - 1/2 can;
• chicken egg - 2 pcs.;
• garlic - 1 tooth.

I drained the oil from the jar, mashed the sprats with a fork, added a boiled egg, chopped on a fine grater, and a clove of garlic passed through a press. I decorated the appetizer with fish tails on top, you can limit yourself to greens or use red caviar for decoration. Bon appetit!

Each hostess can boast that she has her own culinary secrets and her signature "snacks" with which she pampers her family and guests for the holidays. However, in the past few years, many have "adopted" a rather easy-to-prepare and very effective French appetizer - flounces.

Vol-au-vents are weightless, very light tartlets. They are prepared from In the oven, it rises, as a result of which baskets are formed in the form of turrets or cups. Special craftsmen make flounces in the form of octahedrons or hexagons.

Such tartlets are stuffed with everything that is at hand - salads, cold cuts of meat, savory vegetable snacks, seafood, pies, sweet cream. Fruit desserts and jellies are also served in vol-au-vents.

Most often, French tartlets are tiny in diameter, literally “one bite”. However, flounces are also quite large, up to twenty centimeters in diameter. They are stuffed with fish, julienne or meat, then sent back to the oven and baked. They are served as a hot appetizer with spicy sauce. It is noteworthy that such vol-au-vents usually have “lids” made of dough.

Historical reference

From French, vol-au-vent is translated as "flying in the wind." It is believed that the "author" of puff tartlets is a native of the homeland of the three musketeers, chef Marie-Antoine Karem. He served at the court of the British monarch George IV and the Russian autocrat Alexander I, moreover, he managed to win wide recognition and popularity thanks to his talents and numerous improvisations.

As the legend goes, one day Karem promised to surprise his cooks. He put an absolutely flat circle of puff pastry on a baking sheet, which literally turned into a tall barrel before the eyes of the stunned spectators. "He takes off!" - exclaimed the shocked cooks. This is how the name "volovan" appeared.

Dough for vol-au-vents

As noted above, flounces are made from puff pastry. Of course, you can buy it in the store, but many housewives prefer to cook the dough on their own to be sure of its quality.

For the preparation of French tartlets, both yeast-free and puff pastry are suitable.

Yeast dough for vol-au-vents - recipe

To prepare yeast puff text, you will need a good (100-300 g), (20 g), one glass (can be replaced), one egg, 20 g, 3 g.

Pour the warmed milk into the prepared container. In another bowl, dissolve the yeast in a small amount of milk. Pour the diluted yeast into the main container, beat in the egg. Salt. Stir until the mixture is completely homogeneous. Slowly adding flour, start kneading the dough.

At the end of the batch, add pre-melted butter. Knead the dough as thoroughly as possible until the mixture is completely homogeneous. Cover the finished dough with a towel, then leave to rest for three hours.

After the dough has risen properly, roll it into a rectangular cake, the thickness of which should be from one to one and a half centimeters. Put half of the entire norm of butter in the center. Fold the crust in half. Put the remaining butter on it, then fold it in half again. Dust the dough folded in quarters with flour and roll it out again into a cake. Fold in quarters again, sprinkle with flour and roll out. Repeat the procedure at least eight times. The dough is ready.

Yeast-free puff pastry for vol-au-vents - recipe

For those who do not like to mess with yeast, there is another version of puff pastry - yeast-free. It can be used for croissants, puffs and vol-au-vents, and the preparation procedure will be less laborious.

You will need (two glasses), half a glass of water, half a teaspoon of salt, a teaspoon of freshly squeezed, as well as 200 g of butter, which must first be strongly cooled.

Pour salt into half a glass of water. Stir until completely dissolved. Pour in the lemon juice.

Carefully sift the flour so that it is properly saturated with oxygen - this will help your dough become more airy. Shape the flour into a hill and make a well in the center.

Start gradually pouring water into the hole, mixing it with flour. This is how you will knead the dough. Pay attention to the texture - the dough should not be too sticky.

Prepare butter. It should be divided into six equal parts. Roll out the dough into a thin layer. Quickly grate one part of the butter on a grater and spread over the cake. Fold the dough in quarters and roll out again. Take the second part of the oil and repeat the procedure. Repeat manipulations until you use all the oil.

The finished dough should be properly cooled. Put it in the refrigerator for an hour and a half, after which you can start baking.

Preparation of vol-au-vents

To prepare vol-au-vents, you will need either special molds or two glasses with different diameters. You can, for example, use a glass and a regular glass.

Sprinkle the table with flour. After that, roll out about a third of the total mass of the dough. Using a large glass, cut out circles. Transfer them to a baking sheet, making sure to line it with baking paper first.

Slightly roll out the remaining dough. Cut out the same large circles, and then, using a glass, cut out a smaller circle from them. As a result, you will get rings. It is they who will become the walls of the vol-au-vents. The smallest circles will be caps.

Lay out future baking on a baking sheet so that there are at least two centimeters between the flounces - puff pastry grows well, increasing in diameter. When baking vol-au-vents, preheat the oven well - otherwise the dough will not rise.

Divide the egg by separating the white from the yolk. Slightly whisk the protein. Using a brush, lubricate the bottom circles and lids with protein. Poke holes in them with a toothpick to keep them from puffing up in the oven. Place rings-sides on top of the bottoms. They do not need to be lubricated with protein, otherwise the rings will not rise.

Place a baking sheet with blanks for the vol-au-vents in the oven, preheating it to 220 degrees. Leave them in the oven for ten minutes until the sides rise. After the pastries have taken the desired shape, grease them with the remaining protein so that they are covered with a crispy crust. If you want the vol-au-vents to have a bright golden color, grease them with yolk.

Before removing the tartlets from the oven, make sure they are ready. Otherwise, the "barrels" will simply fall off.

Now the pastries should cool down properly - only after that the baskets can be stuffed.

As noted above, almost anything can be used for stuffing vol-au-vents. However, there are a number of general recommendations that should be followed so that baking retains an aesthetic appearance and excellent taste.

First of all, you need to put the filling only in the finished baking. Raw flounces are not stuffed. Even if French tartlets are used as a second course, ready-made volutes are cooled, stuffed, and then baked in the oven again.

For the filling, do not use ingredients that are too liquid, as well as products that release juice a lot. For example, in any form - an unsuitable filling for vol-au-vents. If you still want to please your guests with something juicy, put empty flounces on the table and serve the fillings separately so that the guests fill their tartlets themselves.

If the hot filling of the vol-au-vents is still too juicy, a few minutes before the end of baking, pour a little grated hard cheese inside each tartlet. It will melt, and after cooling, it will seize with a crust that will not allow the dough to become sour.

As noted above, fillings for vol-au-vents can be varied - you can experiment endlessly. However, French tartlets with salty fillings are the most popular - for example, with, as well as with and with mushrooms.

Vol-au-vents with red caviar

Red caviar in elegant puff turrets looks just wonderful. Vol-au-vents with caviar are not only very tasty, but also incredibly beautiful. They will decorate any holiday table and will be a reason for enthusiastic compliments.

You will need half a kilo of dough, 20 g of butter and one can of caviar. Lubricate the finished and well-cooled flounces with a little butter and spread the caviar over the tartlets. This appetizer is best served when it is at room temperature.

Vol-au-vents with chicken and spinach

To prepare such an appetizer, the diameter of the vol-au-vents should be about ten centimeters. For half a kilogram of puff pastry, you will need 250 g of fresh chicken breast, two canned rings, a handful, 100 g, two tablespoons of tomato sauce, the same amount, one tablespoon, salt and sugar to taste.

Cut the pineapple into small cubes. Cut the cherry into four pieces. Wash the fillet, dry it, cut into small pieces and fry until a soft golden brown. Salt. Be careful not to dry out the meat. Add pineapple, cherry tomatoes, tomato and soy sauces and olive oil to the finished chicken. Put spinach greens at the bottom of the vol-au-vents, and place the rest of the ingredients on top.

Vol-au-venti with chicken and cream sauce

For twelve vol-au-vents with a bottom about ten centimeters in diameter, you will need 350 g of chicken fillet, 2 tablespoons and the same amount of vegetable oil, half a teaspoon. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Wash the fillet and cut into small pieces, which should be fried in a small amount of oil until golden brown. Add the rest of the ingredients and simmer for five minutes. After that, when the filling reaches room temperature, fill the flounces.

Vol-au-vents with mushrooms

For half a kilogram of dough for vol-au-vents, you will need 300 g of fresh, half an onion, 60 g of any hard cheese, two tablespoons of vegetable oil. Salt to taste.

Rinse mushrooms thoroughly and finely chop. Clean and chop the onion. Pass it in a small amount in a pan for three minutes, then add the mushrooms and fry until cooked.

Grate the cheese on a fine grater. Put the finished and cooled stuffing into flounces, sprinkle with cheese on top. Place the pastry in the preheated oven and wait for the cheese to melt. These flounces are served hot.

They are served with broths, used as molds for salads and snacks, and large flounces- an independent dish.

Vol-au-vents, valovanchiki
(the Russian name is “swindlers”, from the French vol-au-vent). from unleavened dough, served with different broths. The peculiarity of vol-au-vents is that the dough for them is baked separately from the filling, for which various leftovers from other dishes are used and which is placed immediately before serving, in a recess cut in the middle of the vol-au-vent, and then covered with an overlay piece of pie crust. The convenience of vol-au-vents is that they can be quickly prepared for a large number of diners and at the same time determine their number and size at the last moment: you just need to bake wide cakes of dough (a finger thick), cut them into small pieces, and then quickly fill them with fresh (sometimes hot) ready-made stuffing.

The shape of the flounces can also be any: square, oval, hexagonal, rectangular, etc., depending on the cut. Vol-au-vents were popular until the end of the 19th century, and then were replaced by even more quickly prepared sandwiches (bread and butter).
(Culinary Dictionary of V.V. Pokhlebkin, 2002)

Vol-au-vents
It is believed that the name of these pies comes from the French vol-au-vent, which means "steal and hide." Pies or pies baked in the oven, in the center of which a notch remains. Minced meat is then put into it. Such pies made from unleavened dough can be served with broths. The dough for them is baked separately. For the filling, various minced meat is used. Were rolled and large sizes. For example, gross chicken, the technology of which was also prepared rolled from game, any poultry, veal and lamb.

Recipe for chicken volan. Boil the chicken as for soup and, when it becomes soft enough, disassemble it in parts, removing all the bones, chop. Boil 400 g of rice in lightly salted water, then put it on a sieve and pour over with cold water. Grease the stewpan from the inside with a thick layer of butter, sprinkle well with breadcrumbs, put in it, mixed with 100 g of good butter, level it around the edges, leaving the middle empty, sprinkle thickly with grated spicy parmesan cheese and put in the oven to brown, but not dry. Why should it be watered from time to time with the broth in which the chicken was cooked. When it is ready, put the chicken in the middle of the stewpan, pour over it with red main sauce (it is advisable to make it stronger, for which you should add more dry broth, lemon juice or citric acid, a little sugar and mix well over low heat), grease with sauce bechamel and again put in the oven to redden. Separately, you can serve a side dish of champignons.
(Culinary Dictionary. Zdanovich L.I. 2001) (Source: "United Dictionary of Culinary Terms")

Puff pastry:

• 250 g (2 cups) flour
• 1/2-2/3 cup cold water
• 1/2 egg or 1 egg yolk
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• A little citric acid
• 250 g butter

To lubricate the egg or egg yolk.

The preparation of puff pastry consists of three different operations.

1. Mixing dough. The flour is sifted into a bowl with a slide on a wooden board, a recess is made in the center. A beaten egg, water, salt and citric acid are mixed, poured into a recess and kneaded into a smooth dough. Since flour does not always swell equally, a little flour or liquid is added if necessary. When kneading in the dough, you can also put 1-2 tbsp. tablespoons of oil. The dough is covered with a napkin and put in a cold place for at least 30 minutes.
2. Oil preparation. Cold oil is mixed with 2-3 tbsp. spoons of flour, roll out on a floured board or paper in the form of a square or rectangle and also spread in a cold place. The dough and butter-flour mass should be equally steep. If the oil mass turns out to be stronger than the dough, then when rolling out the oil will not be evenly distributed between the layers, it will remain in one piece and may leak out during baking. Too soft oil is squeezed out when rolling.
3. Rolling out dough in layers. The dough is rolled out so that a square piece is obtained, twice as large as a piece of the butter mixture, and in the middle it should be somewhat thicker than at the edges. The prepared oil mixture is placed in the middle of the square with an angle, the edges of the dough are folded inward with an “envelope”.
4. Then the dough is rolled out, pressing lightly, so that a rectangle with a thickness of approximately 1.5 cm is obtained, folded three or four times, covered with a damp cloth so that the surface of the dough does not dry out and placed for half an hour in a cold place. You can also roll out the dough into a rectangle, put an oblong piece of butter mixture in the middle, cover it with the edges of the dough, then roll it up again, cover with a damp cloth and put in a cold place.
5. The chilled dough is rolled out again, folded and kept for 15 minutes in a cold place. This procedure is repeated 3-4 times. Flour is used sparingly when rolling, only so that the dough does not stick to the board. If there is a lot of flour, then the dough becomes too steep, products from it do not rise well and lose their taste.
6. The finished dough is stored in the refrigerator or in a cold place.
   

   
   Roll out puff pastry into a layer 1 cm thick, cut out 2 round cakes with a diameter of 18-20 cm from it with a sharp knife. Put one cake on a baking sheet sprinkled with cold water and brush with egg (especially the edges).

   Cut out the middle of the other cake with a notch of a smaller size so that a ring 2 cm wide is obtained, and put it on the cake located on the baking sheet. Put a second, smaller cake on the baking sheet as well or roll it out to the size of the first one, cut off the second ring and put it on the baking sheet. Put the remaining scraps together, roll out thinly, cut into strips 1.5 cm wide and put in the form of a lattice in the middle of the ring so that the ends of the strips remain under the ring. Top with egg. Bake in preheated oven until golden brown (12-15 minutes).

   The ring or wire rack will bake faster, so it is recommended to bake separately. When baking, the edge of the volauve rises high, leaving a recess in the middle, which is then filled with hot filling and covered with a separately baked ring or lattice. The filling is chicken meat stewed in a small amount of sauce, fish, liver, veal kidneys, mushrooms, etc.

   If the vol-au-vent is baked earlier, then before putting the filling, it should be placed in a hot oven for several minutes so that it warms up and becomes crispy. Vol-au-vents are served on or as an appetizer on.

   Small portion flounces are prepared in the same way as large flounces. But cakes are formed with a diameter of 6 cm and rings with a width of 1 cm. Small flounces are not covered with a lattice. The filling can be hot or cold. Cold vol-au-vents are filled with caviar, crabs, crayfish, cheese, pate, etc. Sweet fruit and berry fillings with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream are also suitable.