These party Bouchées are identical to vol au vents but much smaller.  The term vol-au-vent means ‘fly with the wind” and for this reason puff pastry, a very light form of flaky pastry, needs to be used.

Filling for Party Bouchées

Ideally, it is best to prepare a basic filling, which you may separate into different bowls, and then add different ingredients and seasonings. This will give you a variety of pasty-filled boats. Do not overfill these bite-sized pastries as these pastries are normally eaten by hand and the filling may spill out of them.

Basic filling:

Place a tub of cream cheese into a bowl. Add some Hanini Creamylight, two hard-boiled eggs, cut into very small pieces, and season with salt and pepper. Mix well until it creates a homogeneous paste.

Varieties of fillings:

Tomato: Peel and cut tomatoes into very small pieces, Add to the basic mixture with a teaspoon of mustard. Mix well. Fill the pastries with the filling and garnish with tomato pieces on top.

Shrimp: Squeeze the juice of a lemon to the basic filling. Mix well. Fill the pastries with this filling and garnish with shrimps and a sliver of lemon on the top. If using frozen shrimps, follow the instructions on the packet.

Salmon: Fill the bouchées with the basic mixture. Cut the smoked salmon into very small pieces and garnish the pastry boats with a slice of lemon or caviar

Tuna: Drain the canned tuna. Mash the tuna and add to the basic filling recipe. Drizzle some drops of Pinto’s Sweet Chilli Sauce or Red Hot Sauce and mix well.

Mushrooms: Finely chop the mushrooms. In a pan melt a spoonful of butter and cook the mushrooms in the butter. Allow to cool. Add the mushrooms to the basic recipe and add some finely chopped parsley. Mix well and fill the pastry with the mixture.

Chicken: Cook the chicken and finely chop. Add to the basic filling recipe and add a spoonful of Mayor Tomato Ketchup. Mix well and fill the party bouchées.