The precautions above referred to are—the use of perfectly dry flour, and its conversion into dough with a light hand, avoiding unnecessarily working it,—the use of butter free from water or buttermilk, and which has been reduced to precisely the same degree of plasticity as the dough between which it is to be rolled,—conducting the operation in a cool apartment, and, after the second or third folding of the dough, exposing it to a rather low temperature before proceeding further with the process; and, lastly,—baking the paste in a moderately smart but not too hot an oven. The following are examples:—
1. (Rich.) Take of flour, 1 lb.; butter, 1⁄4 lb.; cold spring water, q. s.; make a moderately soft flexible dough, then roll in (as described above) of dry fresh butter, 1⁄2 lb.
2. (Ordinary.) Take of flour, 1 lb.; cold water, q. s.; make a dough, and roll in, as before, of butter, 6 oz.
3. (Rundell.) Take 1⁄4 peck of flour, rub into it 1 lb. of butter, and make a ‘light paste’ with cold water, just stiff enough to work well; next lay it out about as thick as a crown-piece; put a layer of butter all over it, sprinkle on a little flour, double it up, and roll it out again; by repeating this with fresh
layers of butter three or four times, or oftener, a very light paste will be formed. Bake it in a moderately quick oven.
4. (Soyer.) Put 1 lb. of flour upon your pastry slab, make a hole in the centre, into which put a teaspoonful of salt, mix it with cold water into a softish flexible paste with the right hand, dry it off a little with flour until you have well cleared the paste from the slab, but do not work it more than you can possibly help; let it remain for 2 or 3 minutes upon the slab, then take 1 lb. of fresh butter from which you have squeezed all the buttermilk in a cloth, and brought to the same consistency as the paste, upon which place it; press it out flat with the hand, then fold over the edges of the paste so as to hide the butter, and reduce it with the rolling-pin to the thickness of about 1⁄2 an inch, when it will be about two feet in length; fold over one third, over which again pass the rolling-pin; then fold over the other third, thus forming a square; place it with the ends top and bottom before you, shaking a little flour both under and over, and repeat the rolls and turns twice again as before; flour a ‘baking-sheet,’ upon which lay it, on ice, if handy, or otherwise, in some cool place, for about half an hour; then roll it twice more, turning it as before, and again place it upon ice or in the cold for 1⁄4 of an hour; next give it two more rolls, making seven in all, and it is ready for use. “You must continually add enough flour while rolling to prevent your paste sticking to the slab.”
Half-puff Paste. As the preceding, using only one half the quantity of butter, and giving the paste only 3 or 4 folds.
Short Paste, Short Crust.—1. Flour (dry and warm), 1 lb.; sugar, 3 oz.; butter, 1⁄4 lb.; 2 eggs; water, 1⁄2 pint; make a light dough. If one half of ‘Jones’s patent flour’ be used, no eggs will be required.
2. (Soyer.) Put on the ‘paste slab’ or ‘pie board’ 1 lb. of flour, 2 oz. of pounded sugar, 6 oz. of butter, 1 egg, 1⁄2 teaspoonful of salt, and 1⁄2 pint of water; mix the sugar and water well together, add them with the water by degrees to the flour, and form a paste, but firmer than puff paste.
Pie Paste. That commonly used is ‘short paste,’ varied at will; but at good tables the upper crust of the pie is generally made of ‘puff paste,’ and the remainder of ‘short paste.’