CookEat Recipe
Sweetbread Filling for Puff Pastry
Small cooked sweetbread pieces bound with a little milk sauce, prosciutto and Parmesan, ready to fill puff pastry.
Method
Steps
Step 1
Gather the ingredients: 250 g professionally trimmed food-grade veal sweetbreads; 30 g butter, divided into 20 g for the meat and 10 g for the milk sauce; About 150 ml prepared strained beef jus, such as recipe 4, for finishing the meat; 100 ml milk; About 2 g plain flour, for the small batch of thin balsamella; 30 g prosciutto containing fat and lean, cut into small dice; 1 tablespoon grated Parmesan; A small pinch of nutmeg; Salt and black pepper to taste; Optional: 10 g fresh truffle, cleaned and thinly sliced.
Step 2
Use professionally trimmed, properly prepared sweetbreads. Melt 20 g butter in a pan, add the sweetbreads, salt and pepper, and gently brown. Add the prepared beef jus a little at a time and simmer until tender and fully cooked to 74°C, about 20–35 minutes depending on size, adding a little water if needed to prevent drying.
Step 3
Meanwhile make a small batch of the thin balsamella from recipe 137: melt the remaining 10 g butter with the 2 g flour, stirring until the flour just begins to colour. Gradually stir in the 100 ml milk and simmer for about 5–8 minutes until the flour is fully cooked and the sauce is creamy but pourable. This makes more than the 1–2 tablespoons needed for the filling.
Step 4
Cut the cooked sweetbreads into pieces no larger than a chickpea. Combine with 1–2 tablespoons of the balsamella, the diced prosciutto, Parmesan and nutmeg. Add the optional truffle if available and warm briefly until tender. Use only enough sauce to bind the pieces without making a runny mixture; taste only after the meat and sauce are fully cooked.
Step 5
Cool promptly in a shallow container in the refrigerator until firm enough to handle. Use as a filling for pastry, keeping it cold until assembly. Refrigerate any extra milk sauce separately and use it and the filling within 2–3 days; reheat cooked filling to 74°C.
Step 6
For the source cooked-veal alternative, replace the sweetbreads with 250 g tender, thoroughly braised lean veal, dice small and bind as above. For the chicken-liver alternative, replace them with 250 g prepared chicken livers, cook fully to 74°C in the butter and jus, chop small, then bind and cool as above. In any version, 30 g ready-to-eat cooked salted beef tongue may replace the prosciutto; these are alternatives, not extra meats added together.
Step 7
To bake with the filling enclosed, use about 300 g prepared puff pastry, such as recipe 154. Roll to about 3 mm and cut matching scalloped or oval discs, about 7 cm across. Put a small spoonful of cold filling in the middle of half the discs, moisten the edges with water and cover with the remaining discs. Seal and brush only the tops with beaten egg yolk, leaving cut edges clear. Bake at 200°C for about 18–25 minutes, until the pastry is fully baked and the filling reaches 74°C. Allow additional assembly and baking time beyond making the filling.
Step 8
For shells filled after baking, cut the same paired discs but leave out the filling. Lightly score a small circle, about 2 cm across, in each top disc before laying it over a moistened lower disc. Glaze only the tops and bake at 200°C until puffed and fully cooked, about 18–25 minutes. Lift off the little scored lids with a knife, gently enlarge the cavities if necessary, add filling heated to 74°C, replace the lids and serve hot. Empty shells can be baked a day ahead, cooled and kept covered dry; keep the meat filling refrigerated separately.
Step 9
For a larger vol-au-vent, the source instead suggests a looser stew of chicken giblets and sweetbreads in larger pieces. As a practical small batch, cook about 150 g prepared chicken hearts, liver and empty cleaned gizzard with 150 g prepared sweetbreads in 20 g butter and about 250 ml beef jus until tender and cooked through to 74°C, adding liquid as needed. Cut into bite-size pieces and serve hot inside an already baked vol-au-vent. Omit intestines and contents. This is a separate filling alternative, with estimated amounts and cooking time of about 45–60 minutes.
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