Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Small Vols-au-Vent À LA Chantilly and À LA Violette
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare the pastry
Roll out the puff pastry to ½ inch thick and cut into 30 scalloped pieces, 2 inches in diameter.
Cut out the center of each piece with a 1¼ inch cutter to form rings.
Use the trimmings to make another 30 scalloped pieces.
Wet the tops of the pieces and place a ring on each, securing it well.
Bake and finish
Brush with egg wash and bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) until nearly done.
Ice with fine sugar and fill with whipped cream or preserves just before serving.
For the strawberry version, glaze the tops with boiled sugar and sprinkle with coarse sugar.
Make the strawberry glaze
Rub a fourth of the ripest strawberries through a fine sieve and mix with remaining sugar.
Boil this mixture until it thickens, then remove from heat.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together42,166 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Egg and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Puff pastry
- Its layers puff and separate in the hot oven, forming the light, flaky shell.
- Egg
- Egg wash gives the pastry a glossy, browned surface as it bakes.
- Sugar
- Sugar sweetens the icing and glaze and helps them brown and set on the surface.
- Strawberries
- Their juice and pulp flavour the strawberry glaze, adding sweetness and fruity acidity.
The step that matters
Securing the ring on the pastry. Wetting the tops before placing the ring makes the pieces adhere. Without a firm seal, the ring can lift or slide during baking, so the case will not rise evenly around its centre.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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