Raspberry Vol-au-vent

This is a bake based on something I spotted in a recipe book that caught my eye. It is a large vol-au-vent dessert. It features a puff pastry case filled with raspberries in a cream and mascarpone mixture flavoured with a little lemon zest, topped with fresh raspberries glazes with raspberry jam and decorated with gold leaf.

The pastry puffed incredibly well and is wonderfully browned. It has light flaky layers, although I have learnt that I wouldn't reroll it next time as it shrunk a little causing a sloping of the sides of the vol-au-vent case. This is obviously what went wrong with my vol-au-vents last time. I did struggle to bake the inside of the case once the base had risen therefore I needed to adapt my method a little and put a weight in the centre to keep it down. Maybe putting this in the centre from the beginning and removing it towards the end would be a better option. The filling is creamy and goes with the sweet fresh raspberries well. The jam glaze gave the shiny finish I desired so I am very happy with the final look. I was expecting disaster so I'm over the moon with the end result!