Mrs. Roundell's Practical cookery book

Short Crust for Tarts. — Take a pound of flour, ten ounces of firm fresh butter, two ounces of sifted loaf sugar, two eggs, and a little milk. Mix together the flour, sugar, and a pinch of salt, with the butter ; work this well, then add the two eggs well beaten, and lastly sufficient milk to form a pliant paste. When this has been done cover the paste with a cloth and let it remain in a cool place for half an hour. \Wyvern.'] If a simple icing is liked, moisten the paste with a little cold water as soon as the tart is covered and before it is baked, sift sugar thickly over it, and press it lightly on. Or, for a whiter icing, draw the tart from the oven when it is nearly baked, first brush it over with white of egg whisked to a froth, then sift plenty of sugar over it and finish with a few drops of water sprinkled over the crust. Put the tart back in the oven at once to finish baking. Another Short Crust, most useful for little savouries, is made of six ounces of flour, three ounces of butter, two yolks of egg, a teaspoonful of lemon- juice, and half a saltspoonful of salt. Mix as for Sweet Short Crust. See also the biscuits recommended for serving with Spinach, page 361. Pastry for Cheese Straws. — Take six ounces of flour, four of butter, three of grated cheese, a dust only of salt, cayenne pepper as may be liked, and for the above quantities two yolks of egg. Rub the butter into the flour, add the egg, but do not add any water. Mix the pepper thoroughly in. Do not actually roll the paste, but rather press it out into a strip a quarter of an inch thick and four inches wide. Cut strips of the paste the size of a straw, using a very sharp knife. Lay them on a buttered baking sheet, being careful in handling them, as they are very brittle. Bake in a slow oven till the straws are a pale fawn colour, and quite crisp. A teaspoonful of mustard flour is often considered 45S ON PASTRY MAKING an improvement. Some cooks have a plan of making quantities of Cheese Straws at once, and keeping them in a biscuit-tin to be heated up when required. This custom should never be allowed, as the Cheese Straws soon get stale, and even musty. The greatest attention must be paid to the state of the oven in Pastry making. It must be hot and brisk enough to raise the Pastry, but not so fierce as to scorch it. Burnt Pastry is a sign not only of too fierce an oven but of a careless cook. 459 CHAPTER XVIII. SWEET DISHES. Tarts and Compotes. — The Lord Dudley already referred to would never sit down to dinner without being certain that an Apple Pie would be served. He scorned the name of Apple Tart, declaring that the word tart meant open pastry, only fit, in his opinion, for children and servants. An Apple Pie is really the only tart which is good when served hot. Various plans have been suggested for overcoming the difficulty of baking the crust without baking the fruit, but the problem has at length been solved by Mrs. Earle. She says : “ All my tarts throughout the “ year are made with the crust baked apart, and the fruit, stewed “ previously, juicy and cold. Shortly before dinner make the “ paste ; crumple up kitchen paper into a mound the height you “ wTish your crust to be, place it in the pie-dish — the round- “ shaped dishes are the prettiest — cover this with a clean sheet “ of buttered paper, lay your paste over this, bake in the usual “ w