Pate En Croute

Pate en croute, was basically the exact same recipe as all the other pates we have made. However this time, we also made a pastry dough and encased the terrine in this crust and baked it. I like pastry crusts, and love the ideas of dishes such as wellingtons and vol-au-vents. But it is extremely difficult to get the proper cook and texture on a crust of these items.

First, making the pie dough was not too difficult. Rolling it out was not fun though - trying to keep it in a perfect rectangle, as thin as the chicken skin, and uniform consistency all around. Then cutting it perfectly to fit the terrine mold with minimal overlap. Next, the top can be decorated with any cut-outs from the dough scraps. I simply put my name. Then two vent holes are cut into the terrine, which are filled with aspic after baking. The aspic forms a jelly layer between the pate and the crust, as the pate shrinks when it is cooked.

My dough ended up cooking okay. The ends were definitely not cooked through but they are normally discarded anyway. I would have liked a bit more color on my crust all around, but that is difficult to do without completely overcooking the meat. It was also difficult to release the terrine from the mold while keeping the crust completely intact.