Topping dishes with crisp golden puff pastry lids

[Gifted Gourmet]

Last weekend I had a divinely decadent cream of mushroom soup which was topped with a crisp golden puff pastry "lid." Elegant!

I would, of course, like to replicate this "feat" and try it using other soups and/or dishes under puff pastry.

Suggestions?

[ChefCrash]

Any soup, stew,casserole could be served as you describe.

You could go a step further and serve them in the puff pastry.

Cut a 5" square piece of puff pastry. Using a knife, score a 31/2" circle in the center of it, cutting only half way deep into the pastry.

Bake the pastry until its about 21/2" high and golden brown. Remove from oven and let cool.

Remove the top inch or so of the circular center (the cap) and save. Excavate the inside of the puff pastry.

Place the puff pastry on a serving plate, and fill with a hot cream soup or whatever and place the cap you saved on top.

[gsquared]

The easiest way to do the soup-with-a-lid thingy is to bake the lids beforehand. Cut rounds from the puff pastry slightly larger than the bowls. Spray the edges and down the outside of the empty bowls with cooking spray. Place rounds of puff pastry on the empty bowls and crimp the outsides down. Brush with eggwash. Bake until golden. Let them cool and remove the lids. They can be kept for a few hours at room temp. When the soup is done, warm the lids for 3 minutes in a hot oven, ladle in the soup and place the lids on top. The lids come out great and look and taste freshly-baked.

[spaghetttti]

Any creamy soup prepared and presented in this fashion here in Bandung is called Zuppa Zuppa. It's very famous and popular now and a very chic dish to order in cafes and restaurants.

I've made it many times at home, and learned the hard way...the soup is made in advance, allowed to cool and then topped with the puff pastry before being baked. I've found that topping hot soup with pastry before baking inhibits it from puffing.

Edited December 21, 2005 by spaghetttti (log)

[Shalmanese]

I've seen recipes with truffled soups that use puff pastries. The pastry keeps the aroma in so when you burst the lid, you get a huge whiff of truffle flavour.

[Marlene]

At our wedding, we served a french Onion soup with a puff pastry lid. It was divine!

[Adam Balic]

This is most likely the archetypal recipe for these style of soups.

[andiesenji]

Someone sent me a small cookbook from the UK several months ago - I believe the title included Quiches and Savory Pies - and I think it was newly published or perhaps a reprint.

I remember reading through it - I made something from it but right now my memory is a little fuzzy, but it did have several "en croute" dishes, which sounded lovely.

I have several stacks of cookbooks waiting to be shelved and I am sure it is in one of them.

Bernard Clayton's book of sweet and savory pastries has a lot of recipes for savory pies and etc.

It is probably at least 20 years old but I came across it when I was searching for another cookbook a while back so it may still be in print.

I used to prepare several recipes from his book when I was still doing my personal chef thing.

My clients liked to have them on hand for serving to drop-in guests. Some were very elegant, but very easy.

The recipes were oriented toward the home cook and were explained nicely.