Page:The White House Cook Book.djvu/354

 322 PASTRY, PIES AND TARTS.

it will be done. Great care should be taken that the paste does not catch or burn in the oven, which is very liable to do after the icing is laid on.

Or make a meringue by adding a tablespoonful of white sugar to the beaten white of one egg. Spread over the top and slightly brown

in the oven.

FINE PUFF PASTE.

INTO one quart of sifted flour mix two teaspoonfuls of baking pow- der and a teaspoonful of salt ; then sift again. Measure out one tea- cupful of butter and one of lard, hard and cold. Take the lard and rub into the flour until a very fine smooth paste. Then put in just enough ice-water, say half a cupful, containing a beaten white of egg, to mix a very stiff dough. Eoll it out into a thin sheet, spread with one- fourth of the butter, sprinkle over with a little flour, then roll up closely in a long roll, like a scroll, double the ends towards the ceatre, flatten and re-roll, then spread again with another quarter of the but- ter. Repeat this operation until the butter is used up. Put it on an earthen dish, cover it with a cloth and set it in a cold place, in the ice box in summer; let it remain until cold; an hour or more before mak- ing out the crust. Tarts made with this paste cannot be cut with a knife when fresh; they go into flakes at the touch.

You may roll this pastry in any direction, from you, toward you, sideways, any way, it matters not, but you must have nice flour, ice- ivater and very little of it, and strength to roll it, if you would succeed.

This recipe I purchased from a colored cook on one of the Lake Michigan steamers many years ago, and it is, without exception, the finest puff paste I have ever seen.

PUFF PASTE FOR PIES.

ONE quart of pastry flour, one pint of butter, one tablespoonful of salt, one of sugar, one and a quarter cupfuls of ice-water. Wash the hands with soap and water and dip them first in very hot and then in cold water. Rinse a large bowl or pan with boiling water and then with cold. Half fill it with cold water. Wash the butter in this, work- ing it with the hands until it is light and waxy. This frees it from the salt and butter-milk and lightens it, so that the pastry is more del- icate. Shape the butter into two thin cakes and put in a pan of ice- water to harden. Mix the salt and sugar with the flour. With the

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