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, Sweet
Ingredients
Directions
Make the case
Make a vol-au-vent case, smaller and lower than a savory one.
When nearly done, brush the pastry with egg white, sprinkle with poured sugar, and return to the oven to set the glaze.
Remove the soft crumb from the interior.
Fill and serve
At serving time, fill the case with picked strawberries, broken up and sweetened with sugar.
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
- Forms the light, flaky, hollow case that holds the filling.
- Fresh strawberries
- Provide the fruity flavour and juicy filling for the case.
- Whipped cream
- Adds richness and a soft, creamy contrast to the fruit.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the strawberries and forms the crisp glaze on the pastry.
The step that matters
Return the case to the oven to set the glaze. Sugar sprinkled on egg-washed pastry needs the heat to melt and set into a glossy, crisp coating. Brushing with egg white helps the sugar stick and brown evenly.
“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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