Vol-Au-Vent: the recipe for a delicious appetizer for the festive table

Vol-au-vents are delicious puff pastry small baskets filled with creams, mousses or vegetables. Perfect as an appetizer or aperitif, they are always present on the party table or for special occasions.

They can be easily made at home with store-bought puff pastry. Simply cut out many discs, form rings with the special pastry cutters, then overlap 3 or 4 layers. Bake them in the oven and finally add your favorite filling.

We present them in two versions, one stuffed with a salmon and chives mousse, and one with ham and green olives. The addition of spreadable cheese in both will give the creams an extraordinary taste. Anyway, you can customize your vol-au-vent recipe according to your taste. So let’s find out how to make vol-au-vent by following our recipe step by step.

What is a Vol-Au-Vent?

A vol-au-vent (pronounced vol-ah-vahn) is a French dish created by Antonin Carême. It is usually served as a savory appetizer or even as a dessert if the filling is sweet.

Translated "windblown", vol-au-vents consist of two disks of rolled out puff pastry that are stacked, one with a hole in the center. The empty space is then filled vegetables, meat, fish, sauces or creams.

Vol-au-vent are very similar to bouchée, but the difference is in the size. Vol-au-vent have a diameter of 15-20 cm, whereas bouchée are smaller and have a diameter of just 10 cm.

Vol-Au-Vent Filling Ideas

You can make different fillings, also based on mushrooms, chicken, raw ham, Olivier salad, olives, pesto and everything that your imagination suggests.

You can replace spreadable cheese with brie or ricotta.

Instead of smoked salmon you can use tuna, or swordfish for your vol-au-vent.

How to store Vol-Au-Vent

Vol-au-vent must be eaten at the moment and cannot be stored or frozen.

How to make Vol-Au-Vent

Roll out the disc of puff pastry and cut out circles with a diameter of 5 cm (1).

When you have used up all the surface, calculate 3 empty discs for each whole base and cut them inside with a smaller mold (2).

Prick the whole bases with the tines of a fork (6 or 7 in this case) and remove the excess dough scraps (3).

Brush the discs with beaten egg (4).

Place an empty disc on each base (5), remembering to always brush with the egg before adding the next one.

When you have overlapped them all, you will have to brush the entire surface with the egg (6).

Bake the vol-au-vent at 200° C (392° F) for 10-15 minutes (7), until they are puffy and golden.

Meanwhile, prepare the two mousses; collect the salmon and fresh cheese in a stand mixer (8).

Blend until you get a firm and spreadable consistency (9). Put the mousse in a pastry bag with a star nozzle.

Also blend the baked ham with the cheese (10).

Fill another pastry bag (11) and set aside.

Remove the vol-au-vent from the oven and let them cool completely, then fill them with the two prepared mousses (12).

Form rich, tall tufts (13).

Decorate the salmon vol-au-vent with chives and the baked ham vol-au-vent with chopped green olives and freshly ground pepper (14).

Serve the vol-au-vent immediately (15).