Puff Pastry Cups with Almond Cream and Strawberries
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!
Where’s the recipe? I’ve clicked all over and can’t find it.
I apologize, it looks like the link is no longer working, and unfortunately I do not have this recipe posted anywhere. Maybe a google search can you help you find something similar?
Actually I think the vol-au-vent refers to the puff pastry column thingy, and then you can fill it with whatever fillings…(at least that is what I understand from the British Baking Show haha)
I am from Belgium, and what we call vol-au-vent here, is made of creamy chicken sauce and mushrooms and it’s delicious ! I don’t understand why you baked a pastry and called it that way? By the way, great blog !