Page:Seventy-Five Receipts for Pastry, Cakes, and Sweetmeats.djvu/19

 PUFF PASTE.


 * Half a pound and two ounces of sifted flour.
 * Half a pound of the best fresh butter&mdash;washed.
 * A little cold water.

This will make a puff-paste for two Puddings, or for one soup-plate Pie, or for four small Shells.

Weigh half a pound and two ounces of flour, and sift it through a hair-sieve into a large deep dish. Take out about one fourth of the flour, and lay it aside on one corner of your pasteboard, to roll and sprinkle with.

Wash, in cold water, half a pound of the best fresh butter. Squeeze it hard with your hands, and make it up into a round lump. Divide it in four equal parts; lay them on one side of your paste-board, and have ready a glass of cold water.

Cut one of the four pieces of butter into the pan of flour. Cut it as small as possible. Wet it gradually with a very little water (too much water will make it tough) and mix it well with the point of a large case-knife. Do not touch it with your hands. When the dough gets into a lump, sprinkle on the middle of the board some of the flour that you laid aside, and lay the dough upon it, turning it out of the pan with the knife.

Rub the rolling-pin with flour, and sprinkle a little on the lump of paste. Roll it out thin, quickly, and evenly, pressing on the rolling-pin very lightly. Then take the second of the four pieces of butter, and, with the point of your knife, stick it in a little bits at equal distances all over the sheet of paste.