Week 5 Puff Pastry

Week 5 was a heavy load. We had to make puff pastry for chicken stroganoff in vol-au-vent, sweet paste for fruit tartlets, pumpkin soup and bread rolls. 

I was in charge of making the vol-au-vent cases and the sweet pastry. The puff pastry was very interesting to make. There was way too much butter in the recipe and even after reducing the butter there were still too much of it!
I was very careful and patient with the pastry making process. You really need to let the dough rest in the fridge before each folds and don't forget how many folds you have made. This puff pastry had alternating folds of single turns and double turns. 

Well my vol-au-vent cases were slanting to a side because the oven fan was on. Sigh..Next time, I got to make sure I turn the fan off. But I was happy to see all the layers that puffed up. Not too bad for a newbie.

Nice golden colour and crispy layers.

The chicken stroganoff was prepared by my teammate. It was very nice and I have to admit, it is my first time eating chicken stroganoff. I quite like it. 

Shortcrust pastry filled with créme pâtissiere and topped with fruits.

Hmm... I actually tried making this at home before the practical day in class. The ones I made at home were not good. I think I overworked the dough and also it wasn't chilled long enough causing the cases to be hard. So I learnt from my mistakes and did pretty good in class. haha! Just that I wasn't too happy that it was still too thick and the edges were not tidy and smooth. I will have to try this again to get it right.

Yummy fruit tartlets.

Even though it didn't look too good, the texture light and crumbly. In other words, Yummy!!!