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Peaches, Vol-Au-Vent Of
Take as much fine puff-paste as is required for the size of a vol-au-vent. It should be the exact size and shape of the inside of the dish on which it is intended to be served. Roll it out to the thickness of an inch and a quarter, and stamp the cover on the top according to the directions given for a vol-au-vent. (See VOL-AU-VENT.) Bake in a brisk oven. If the pastry has been properly made it will rise in the oven until it is about five inches in height; when it has done so, and is lightly coloured, take it out, remove the lid, and scoop out the inside. Have as many peaches as will be required to fill the empty space, already cut into halves and stewed in syrup until they are tender, but unbroken. Put them into the vol-au-vent, boil the syrup quickly for a few minutes until it is very thick, pour it upon the peaches, and serve the vol-au-vent on a neatly-folded napkin. Time to bake a moderate-sized vol-au-vent--say one made with three-quarters of a pound of puff-paste--about twenty-five minutes. Probable cost, 2s. Sufficient for four or five persons.
A Victorian fruit vol-au-vent is a single tall puff-pastry case filled at the last moment with poached peaches and reduced syrup. Everything depends on the case rising straight and staying dry, so build it, fill it, and serve it in that order without pause.
- Brisk ovenRead "brisk" as 425-450F. Puff paste needs that initial heat to convert its water to steam and force the layers apart; a moderate oven will melt the butter out and give you a squat, greasy case. Twenty-five minutes for a case made from 12 oz of pastry is about right, and you may need to drop to 375F for the last few minutes if it is colouring too fast.
- An inch and a quarter is not a misprintModern pastry work rolls puff thin; here you want a slab, because the five-inch height depends on starting from that thickness and then rising several times over. Cut it out with a single decisive press of a sharp cutter or a knife held vertically — a dragged or twisted edge seals the layers and the case rises lopsided.
- Stamping the coverThe recipe sends you to its own VOL-AU-VENT entry for this. Standard practice is to score a circle in from the edge, cutting part-way down, before baking; that inner disc lifts off as the lid after baking and the soft, underbaked crumb beneath it is what you scoop out.
- Puff-paste"Fine puff-paste" means a full-butter laminated dough. All-butter block puff pastry from the freezer case works and will reach a respectable height; the sheeted rough-puff sold rolled in parchment is too thin to be stacked usefully and will not.
- Stewing the peachesHalve and stone ripe freestone peaches, skin them by dipping in boiling water for 30 seconds, and poach in a syrup of roughly 1 cup sugar to 2 cups water at a bare simmer. Ripe fruit takes 5-8 minutes and no more — the recipe's "tender, but unbroken" is the whole test, and a rolling boil will collapse them.
- The syrupLift the peaches out before reducing, or they will overcook while the syrup thickens. Boil the syrup hard until it coats a spoon, a couple of minutes at most for a small quantity; taken too far it sets to toffee on the cold fruit.
- Assemble at the table's edgeThe case softens quickly once filled. Bake it ahead if you must, keep it dry, warm it briefly, and add fruit and syrup immediately before it leaves the kitchen.
- Yield and costFour to five as written. The "2s." is a period price note of no present use; the folded napkin under the case, whatever its original purpose, will absorb syrup and stop the case sliding on the dish, which is still a sound idea.
The vol-au-vent — "flight in the wind", a name for the near-weightless rise of the case — is generally traced to early nineteenth-century French pastry work and Antonin Carême is usually credited with popularising it, though the attribution is traditional rather than documented. By the time Cassell's was compiled in the 1870s and after, the form had become a standard vehicle in English kitchens for anything from oyster ragout to sweetened fruit, and the sweet versions belonged to the dessert course of a served dinner, where the ability to produce a five-inch case that stood up unaided was a straightforward demonstration of a cook's competence with laminated paste. Peaches in particular signalled money: outside a short summer window they meant a walled garden, a glasshouse, or a bottling jar.