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 Op Fresh Strawberries, with Whipped Cream
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the case
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Roll out the puff pastry and shape it into a vol-au-vent case, smaller and lower than a savory one.
Brush the pastry with egg white and sprinkle with pounded sugar.
Return to the oven to set the glaze, about 10 minutes.
Remove the soft crumb from the interior.
Fill and serve
Mix the strawberries with sugar to taste and fill the pastry just before serving.
Top with a few spoonfuls of whipped cream and serve.
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).
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 in the oven to form the hollow, crisp case.
- Fresh strawberries
- Provide fresh fruit flavour, sweetness and juicy moisture to the filling.
- Whipped cream
- Adds a cool, light, creamy topping that contrasts with the crisp pastry.
- Egg white (in the method)
- Brushed on the pastry to form a glaze that helps it brown and set.
The step that matters
Return to the oven to set the glaze. The egg white glaze must dry and set in the hot oven; if the case is underbaked it stays soft and sticky, and the pastry will not hold its shape or crispness once filled.
“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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