Brioche For Vol-Au-Vent Case

2 cakes of compressed yeast ½ cup of water

3 whole eggs

4 yolks of eggs

½ cup of scalded milk 2/3 cup of butter 4 2/3 cups of flour

Mix the yeast cakes through the water, and stir in enough of the flour to make a dough and knead until a smooth ball is formed. Make two gashes in the top of the ball at right angles to each other. Set the ball in a small saucepan containing the half cup pf scalded milk cooled to a lukewarm temperature.

Let stand until light and puffy. When the ball of yeast is light, add this and the milk to the other ingredients and beat with the hand until smooth. Let stand in a temperature of about 68° six hours, when the mixture should be light. Set aside in a refrigerator over night to become thoroughly chilled. Next day, turn on to a floured board and roll to a rectangular strip one-fourth an inch thick. Spread the paste with soft butter and fold to make three even layers. Cut out with a vol-au-vent cutter dipped in hot water. Score one inch from the edge through two layers of paste. Set the shape in a tin spread with paper. Cover and let stand to become light. Bake about twenty-five minutes.

Baba For Vol-Au-Vent Case

1 cake of compressed yeast ½ cup of lukewarm water 1 pound of flour

10 ounces (1¼ cups) of butter ¼ teaspoonful of salt 8 eggs

Soften the yeast in the water and stir in enough of the flour to make a dough that can be kneaded. Knead the little ball of dough until it is elastic and put it into a small saucepan of lukewarm water. Meanwhile add the butter (softened but not melted), the salt and three of the eggs to the rest of the flour and beat with the hand until all are evenly blended. Then add five eggs, one after another, beating in each egg thoroughly before the next is added.

When the ball of dough rises to the top of the water and is very light and porous, remove it from the water with a skimmer, and beat it into the egg paste. Have ready one large or two smaller molds, oval or round, and fluted or stamped with a pattern, thoroughly buttered. Pour in the mixture to three-fourths the height of the mold or molds. Let stand until the molds are nearly filled; bake from half to three-fourths of an hour. Turn from the mold and cut out the center to leave a hollow shell. Use as a case for a salpicon mixture, sweetbreads in slices, quenelles, chicken, etc., mixed with a rich sauce. A cover may be formed of the piece cut out.

Shaping A Vol-Au-Vent

If the paste is to be used for a vol-au-vent, roll it into a sheet large enough to cut three pieces of the size desired. Use one piece for a bottom, one for a ring (piece from which center is cut) and one for a cover. Decorate the cover with small figures cut from the paste. Two rings may replace the ring and cover.

Regarding Vol-Au-Vent

Vol-au-vent cases filled with creamed or other mixtures belong in this division of Entrées. Any of the salpicon mixtures given in this chapter may be used for the filling of these large pieces of pastry. Quenelles of chicken, veal, game or fish shaped in teaspoons with parboiled oysters, slices of sweetbread, truffles or mushrooms in a rich brown, Bechamel or Allemand sauce is a good combination and one a little out of the ordinary. A simple way of shaping and poaching quenelles for such a filling is as follows: Have ready a buttered paper of size suitable to spread over a saucepan of boiling water or stock. With a pastry bag and small plain tube form fluted quenelle shapes on the paper to cover it.

Invert the paper on the top of the saucepan of liquid when the quenelles will float off. Let stand, without boiling, until firm throughout. Skim out, drain on a soft cloth, and they are ready to use. These should be about one inch long and wider in the middle than at the ends.

In Chapter II will be found recipes for puff paste, baba, brioche and chou paste, all of which are used for large cases. A puff-paste vol-au-vent is shown at page 45. Recipes for the fillets of chicken and the quenelles used in ornamentation are given in this chapter. More delicate quenelles may be made by any one of the recipes given under forcemeat.

Vol-Au-Vent Of Egg Timbales, Sliced, And Peas

Prepare puff paste with half a pound, each, of flour and butter, and use in making a vol-au-vent. Prepare the recipe for egg timbales, turn from the molds and let cool. Cut the timbales in even slices, one-fourth an inch thick. Have ready half the measure of cooked peas, and by measure three-fourths as much Bechamel sauce as peas and slices of timbale. Reheat the pastry, if cold; turn in the solid ingredients, made very hot in the sauce. Set the cover in place and serve at once. Slices of hard-cooked eggs may be used in place of the slices of timbale, also other varieties of timbale or of vegetables may be served in this way.

Vol-Au-Vent Decorated With Chicken Fillets And Quenelles

Fill a vol-au-vent case (a large puff paste patty; in this case of oval shape) with cooked chicken, cut in cubes, and mushrooms, broken in pieces and sauted in butter, mixed with a thick cream or Bechamel sauce. Garnish the top with chicken fillets and quenelles.

A vol-au-vent seven inches in diameter will serve eight portions.