French Puff Paste. ✠
- 1 lb. flour.
- ¾ lb. butter.
- 1 egg; use the yolk only.
- Ice-water.
Chop half the butter into the flour; stir the beaten egg into half a cup ice-water, and work the flour into a stiff dough; roll out thin, baste with one-third the remaining butter, fold closely, roll out again, and so on until the butter is used up. Roll very thin, and set the last folded roll in a very cold place ten or fifteen minutes before making out the crust. Wash with beaten egg while hot. This paste is very nice for oyster-pâtés as well as for fruit-pies.
Puff-Paste.
- 1 pint flour.
- ½ lb. butter.
- 1 egg, well beaten. Use the yolk only.
- 1 gill ice-water.
Mix the flour, a tablespoonful of butter, the beaten egg and ice-water into a paste with a wooden spoon. Flour your pastry-board, and roll out the crust very thin. Put the rest of the butter, when you have washed it, in the centre of this sheet, in a flat cake. Turn the four corners of the paste over it, and roll out carefully, not to break the paste. Should it give way, flour the spot, that it may not stick to the roller. When very thin, sprinkle lightly with flour, fold up, and roll out four times more. Set in a cool place for an hour, roll out again, and cut into tartlet-shells or top crust for pies.
The bottom crust of pies may often be made of plainer pastry than the upper.
Transparent Crust. (Very rich.)
- 1 lb. flour.
- 1 lb. butter.
- 1 egg—the yolk only.
Wash the butter, dry, and then melt it in a vessel set in another of boiling water, stirring gently all the while to prevent oiling. Take off the salty scum from the top, and when almost cold beat up the butter little by little with the egg, which should be previously whipped light. When these are thoroughly incorporated, work in the flour, roll out twice, sprinkling lightly with flour before you fold it up; let it stand folded five minutes in a cold place, and make out for tartlets or pâtés. It is not suitable for large pies. Bake before you fill them, and brush over with a beaten egg while hot.