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!” 

When I found out that September’s Daring Bakers Challenge was to do puff pastry I had mixed feelings. I was really excited because this is something I’ve always wanted to learn, but at the same time I felt very intimidated by it. This may be why I put off completing the challenge until October. Finally, I could delay no longer and, inspired from what I’d seen from other Daring Bakers, I overcame my fear.

It turned out to not be as scary of a process as I feared. It was definitely doable. And I was extremely giddy when I pulled them out of the oven and saw how well they turned out. The Vols-au-Vent that we were required to do are little bowls of puff pastry that can be filled with almost anything, sweet or savory. Since I have such a dominant sweet tooth, there was no question that I’d be turning this into a dessert. I filled my Vols-au-Vent with sweetened almond whipped cream and topped them with fresh strawberries and sliced almonds.

Update 2022: this recipe was part of a baking challenge from way back in 2009. The original recipe page has been deleted or removed, and is no longer available. My apologies!