Vol-au-vent
Roll Puff Paste one half inch thick. Cut out in desired shape, wet edges, and place one inch rim on wet edge. Prick several times in center that paste may rise evenly. Chill. Cut cover the size of space inside the rim. Decorate top of cover with paste circles, crescents, or diamonds, always wetting under surface with cold water before arranging. Chill before baking. Pâté Shells Roll Puff Paste one third inch thick; shape with round cutter; cut rings from one half the rounds. Place rings on rounds using cold water to hold them together. Chill until stiff before baking.
Bouchées Roll Puff Paste one fourth inch thick. Cut with small round cutter; make impression on round with smaller round cutter. Chill until stiff before baking.
This is a shaping method rather than a full recipe: it assumes you already have puff paste made and gives no oven temperature, time, or yield. The details below fill those gaps.
- Oven heatThe book gives no temperature or time. Puff paste needs a hot start so the water in the layers turns to steam before the butter melts out: modern practice is a hot oven (about 425-450F) until the case is well risen and set, then a drop to moderate heat to dry the interior. A large case will need considerably longer than the small bouchees; bake by appearance rather than the clock.
- The hinge is the chillingThe book says "chill" four times and means it. Warm paste slumps and the rim slides off centre; paste chilled firm before it goes into the oven rises straight instead of leaning.
- Why prick the centreDocking the base keeps the floor of the case flat while the rim climbs, so the finished shell has a well to hold filling. Do not prick the rim or the ring will not lift.
- Cutting the ringsPress cutters straight down and lift straight up; a twisting cut seals the cut layers together and the edge rises unevenly. Chill the cutter, or dip it in flour, if the paste is soft.
- Sizes in the three formsThe book gives no diameters, only relative cutter sizes. Vol-au-vent is the large single case, meant to be cut at table; pate shells are individual portions; bouchees are the smallest, one to two bites, and there the small cutter marks a lid to be lifted after baking rather than a separate ring.
- Water, not egg, as glueCold water is specified for joining rim to base and for fixing the pastry crescents and diamonds. Egg wash on the joins glues the layers shut; save any wash for the top surface only, and keep it off the cut edges.
- Yield and fillingThe book gives no yield or weight of paste. Fill only after baking and just before serving; a hot creamed filling turns the base soft within minutes.
- Placement in the bookThe shell is neutral -- these cases were equally standard for creamed oysters, sweetbreads, or chicken as for sweet fillings. The filling decides the course.
Vol-au-vent translates literally as "flight in the wind," a name traditionally explained by how little the baked case weighs for its size, and generally traced to the Paris pastry trade of the early nineteenth century, with Antonin Careme most often credited for popularising it. Bouchee simply means "mouthful," and the American "patty shell" or "pate shell" is the same object scaled to one serving. By the time Lowney's Cook Book appeared in 1907, written by Maria Willett Howard for the Walter M. Lowney chocolate company, puff paste cases were often said to be a test of an American cook's skill and a fixture of the ladies' luncheon: an empty shell could be baked in the morning and filled at the last moment with anything from creamed chicken to sweetened fruit, and instructions like these are given as shapes rather than as dishes.