Seventy-Five Receipts for Pastry Cakes, and Sweetmeats | Page 3

the paste, sprinkle a little more
flour on the dough, and on the rolling-pin, and roll it out a third time,
always pressing on it lightly. Stick it over with the fourth and last piece
of butter. Throw on a little more flour, fold up the paste and then roll it
out in a large round sheet. Cut off the sides, so as to make the sheet of a
square form, and lay the slips of dough upon the square sheet. Fold it
up with the small pieces of trimmings, in the inside. Score or notch it a
little with the knife; lay it on a plate and set it away in a cool place, but

not where it can freeze, as that will make it heavy.
Having made the paste, prepare and mix your pudding or pie. When the
mixture is finished, bring out your paste, flour the board and rolling-pin,
and roll it out with a short quick stroke, and pressing the rolling-pin
rather harder than while you were putting the butter in. If the paste rises
in blisters, it will be light, unless spoiled in baking.
Then cut the sheet in half, fold up each piece and roll them out once
more, separately, in round sheets the size of your plate. Press on rather
harder, but not too hard. Roll the sheets thinnest in the middle and
thickest at the edges. If intended for puddings, lay them in buttered
soup-plates, and trim them evenly round the edges. If the edges do not
appear thick enough, you may take the trimmings, put them all together,
roll them out, and having cut them in slips the breadth of the rim of the
plate, lay them all round to make the paste thicker at the edges, joining
them nicely and evenly, as every patch or crack will appear distinctly
when baked. Notch the rim handsomely with a very sharp knife. Fill the
dish with the mixture of the pudding, and bake it in a moderate oven.
The paste should be of a light brown colour. If the oven is too slow, it
will be soft and clammy; if too quick, it will not have time to rise as
high as it ought to do.
In making the best puff-paste, try to avoid using more flour to sprinkle
and roll with, than the small portion which you have laid aside for that
purpose at the beginning. If you make the dough too soft at first, by
using too much water, it will be sticky, and require more flour, and will
eventually be tough when baked. Do not put your hands to it, as their
warmth will injure it. Use the knife instead. Always roll from you
rather than to you, and press lightly on the rolling-pin, except at the
last.
It is difficult to make puff-paste in the summer, unless in a cellar, or
very cool room, and on a marble table. The butter should, if possible,
be washed the night before, and kept covered with ice till you use it
next day. The water should have ice in it, and the butter should be iced
as it sets on the paste-board. After the paste is mixed, it should be put
in a covered dish, and set in cold water till you are ready to give it the

last rolling.
With all these precautions to prevent its being heavy, it will not rise as
well, or be in any respect as good as in cold weather.
The handsomest way of ornamenting the edge of a pie or pudding is to
cut the rim in large square notches, and then fold over
triangularly
one corner of every notch.
COMMON PASTE FOR PIES.
A pound and a half of sifted flour.
Three quarters of a pound of
butter--washed.
This will make one large pie or two small ones.
Sift the flour into a pan. Cut the butter into two equal parts. Cut one
half of the butter into the flour, and cut it up as small as possible. Mix it
well with the flour, wetting it gradually with a little cold water.
Spread some flour on your paste-board, take the lump of paste out of
the pan, flour your rolling-pin, and roll out the paste into a large sheet.
Then stick it over with the remaining half of the butter in small pieces,
and laid at equal distances. Throw on a little flour, fold up the sheet of
paste, flour it slightly, and roll it out again. Then fold it up, and cut it in
half or in four, according to the size of your pies. Roll it out into round
sheets the size of your pie-plates, pressing rather harder on the

rolling-pin.
Butter your pie-plates, lay on your under crust, and trim the edge. Fill
the dish