Brenda's Just Deserts

Brenda had her bridal shower this weekend and asked me to make and bring a dessert. I wanted to make something really special for her and finally decided on puff pastry vol-au-vent with lemon custard filling and topped with sweated, sugared strawberries. I don't own a vol-au-vent cutter, so these are technically bouchee pastries, but vol-au-vent sounded cooler. I was very pleased with the way these turned out. I stayed up literally all night making the pastry dough fresh and and from scratch; formed, baked and cooled the shells. The lemon custard was actually a second attempt after a scrapped vanilla cream custard version. This filling was much simpler and not nearly as fussy and included egg yolks, butter, and fresh lemon juice. The tartness of the lemon was perfect with the sugared strawberry. I used a pastry bag to fill them and actually assembled them at the party, hurried and in a corner, but I was pleased with how pretty they were! They were a hit and well worth the effort. In the future, these would be a snap to make if you have some frozen puff pastry and fresh lemons on hand.