Puff pastry doves

To prepare puff pastry doves, start by making the pastry cream: heat the milk in a saucepan with half a vanilla bean and its seeds; beat the egg yolk and sugar together in a bowl 1 with a whisk, then add the flour (or you can use corn starch instead). Remove the vanilla bean using kitchen tongues, gradually add the heated milk to the mixture 2 and stir with a whisk. Place the mixture back on the stove and stir continuously until it thickens 3. Place the pastry cream in a bowl and leave to cool after covering with plastic wrap.

After preparing the pastry cream, take the puff pastry, sprinkle the work top with abundant flour and gently roll the pastry out with a rolling pin 4. Click here to download the dove-shaped mold, cut it out from stiff material, like cardboard, place it on the puff pastry and cut the doves out by running a knife around the edge of the mold 5. Once you have cut out the colombine, place them on an oven tray lined with parchment paper and use a brush to dab with an egg beaten with a spoon of cream (or milk) 6.

After dabbing them with a brush, sprinkle the powdered sugar over the colombine 7 and bake in an oven preheated to 356°F (180°C) for 20 minutes (for around 15 minutes in a convection oven). Remove from the oven and leave to cool 8. Once cooled, delicately cut your doves in half 9.

Place the pastry cream in a star-tipped pastry bag and fill the dove 10. Close it with the top half of puff pastry and dust with the powdered sugar 11. Your puff pastry doves are ready 12, all that's left for you to do now is serve them!