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Dessert

Vol-au-vent, with Cream

A pastry case filled with jam or fruit, topped with whipped cream and fruit jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 ↓

Vol-au-vent, with Cream

6 to 8 small vol-au-vent cases

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cases

  1. Bake the vol-au-vent cases until golden brown.

  2. Remove the tops and scoop out the insides.

  3. Dry the cases and let them cool completely.

Fill and finish

  1. Fill the cases with rich jam or stewed fresh fruit in thick syrup.

  2. Top with nicely-flavored whipped cream.

  3. Garnish the edges with dots of bright-colored fruit jelly.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Vol-au-vent cases
Provide the crisp, golden pastry shell that holds the filling.
Whipped cream
Adds a light, airy, creamy topping that contrasts with the crisp pastry.
Rich jam
Adds concentrated sweetness and fruit flavor to the filling.
Fresh fruit
Adds fresh flavor, moisture and tartness to the filling.
Fruit jelly
Adds glossy color and concentrated fruit flavor as a garnish.

The step that matters

Dry the cases and let them cool completely. Any moisture left in the baked pastry will soften it and make it soggy once filled. Cooling fully before filling keeps the shells crisp, and warm cases would also melt the cream.

“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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