These rough puff pastry shells are hollow and perfect for stuffing with any sweet or savory filling you want to make. Be aware, you need to have frozen butter so if you don't have any in the freezer, toss some in now!

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Vol Au Vent Pastry Shells are the means to hold delicious fillings, savory OR sweet. Charm your family with this old-fashioned pastry bake, stuffed with their favorite filling. They’ll travel back to the 70s with you while enjoying these pastries.

Vol au Vent shells are just Homemade Rough Puff Pastry cases that look a little like a volcano. The cases consist of one flat disk of homemade rough puff, and two more disks on top but with the center cut out.

Finished vol au vent shell with a sweet filling, whipped cream, and a blueberry on top.

They’re held together with an egg wash made of egg and cream. That egg wash is also brushed on top of the upper ring of the Vol au Vent shell to give it a brown sheen. As the shells bake they rise up to form a round hollow case to hold fillings. Vol au Vent means windblown, referring to the lightness of the pastry.

Typically the shells are filled with a savory filling but you can use a sweet filling too. But these cases are neither sweet nor savory they’re just puff pastry flavored.

A cooling rack full of vol au vents filled with blueberry filling.

It was PASTRY WEEK on The GBBO!

Pastry Week always panics bakers, and I understand that! This bake left me sleepless for at least one night. I was worried the pastry would slip and slide, which it did for many bakers in the episode.

Empty vol au vent shells on a baking sheet and parchment.

I’d like to say that I know WHY mine didn’t slide everywhere but I’m not 100% sure. I think it’s because I used an egg wash to hold them together and I chilled them right before baking.

Bakes for Pastry Week

Signature Bake: Sweet Vol au Vent
Technical Bake: Fried Spring Rolls
Showstopper Bake: 3D Pastry Scene

I’ve NEVER heard of a sweet, not savory, Vol au Vent before, have you? For some reason, the only ones I’d ever seen were IN cookbooks and full of something akin to a chicken pot pie filling. Or something close to it.

a sweet pastry case with blueberry jam, whipped cream, and a blueberry cut in half.

Sweet Vol au Vents intrigued me, and I HAD to make them. Mostly I just love making rough puff pastry. And I relished the thought of making it again. Also, I REALLY want to spell that RUFF PUFF, not rough puff.

Things you will need:

all-purpose flour
butter-some of the butter needs to be frozen the rest can just be cold butter
salt
water
egg
milk or cream
medium bowl
plastic wrap, beeswax wrap, foil, plastic bag
baking sheets
parchment paper

Any time you work with pastry

KEEP IT COLD. Don’t use warm butter. Don’t overwork it in a warm room or next to a hot oven or stove. When in doubt CHILL IT.

To Store Leftovers

Store cooled unfilled shells in an airtight container. Do not fill the Vol au Vents and then try to store for serving, the filling will melt your pastry shell.

Vol au Vent

5 from 2 votes

Course: Bread

Cuisine: French

Prep Time: 3

Cook Time: 17

Servings: shells

Calories: 339kcal

Author: Laura

Print Recipe

Ingredients

Vol au Vent Shells

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 pinch salt
3/4 cup butter Half of the butter should be frozen, the OTHER half should be straight out of the fridge
9 TBSP cold water
1 egg
1 TBSP cream or use milk

Bluberry Filing

3/4 cup blueberry jam I used homemade low sugar jam, use what you have and love
1 cup whipping cream
2 TBSP granulated sugar
2 TBSP graham cracker crumbs
12 blueberries

Instructions

mix the flour and salt together
cut the cold butter into pieces and work into the flour until its crumbly, use two knives or a pastry blender, or your hands
add enough of the water to the flour mix and stir to form a dough, if its still dry you can add more water, you don't want a dry dough
once a dough forms knead it lightly in the bowl and then transfer it to the counter
pat it out in a rectangle and then roll it out to 12×6 inches with the short end towards you
grate the frozen butter directly onto the bottom 2/3s of the dough
fold the top third down over the butter, then fold the bottom third up as well, see diagram
rotate 90° roll out to 12×6 inch rectangle again, fold the same way
cover tightly and refrigerate for 20 minutes
remove from the fridge, and put the short end towards you, roll out to 12×6 inch rectangle, fold the same as above and rotate 90°
roll out to a 12×6 inch rectangle again, fold again
wrap the dough back up and refrigerate
repeat the rolling and rotating one more time and the dough is done
to make the shells: roll the cold dough out to roughly 18×14 inches, cut 36 circles out of the dough
lay 12 of them on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper
cut the middles out of 24 of the circles
make an egg wash out of the egg and cream, use your finger to put a circle of egg wash on the flat full circle of dough, lay one ring on top, add egg wash, lay final ring on top, add egg wash, be careful not to get egg wash on the sides of the vol au vent shell, that can make it bake up uneven!
when all the shells are assembled refrigerate for 20 minutes
preheat the oven to 425°while the shells cool
bake the vol au vent shells for 15-19 minutes or until the shells are baked, the bottoms are crispy and they are lightly browned all over
cool completely on a wire rack
if any of the shells have risen inside the rings pick that out or poke it back down
TO SERVE fill with your desired filling, or use my blueberry filling idea, add a TBSP of jam to the shells, make the heavy cream into whipped cream and pipe into the tops of the vol au vent shells add a blueberry and sprinkle with graham cracker crumbs