Paul Richards' book of breads, cakes, pastries, ices and sweetmeats

The cream and lemon fillings for open pies should be filled in the baked bottoms while hot. The custard pies require a slower heat in baking than the fruit pies; and for deep pies of this kind, it is preferable to warm the milk or custard instead of filling it ice cold into the pies. The filling of the pies is done in the oven. The bottoms are placed in the oven and the filling is done best with a dipper made for this purpose, to which a long wooden handle can be attached. If the custard is filled into the pies cold it begins to bake from the rim to the center; the outer part puffs up before the center is baked, and when taken from the oven the puffed up part of the custard falls down, because it is baked too much. The heating of the custard before filling in the pies prevents this, and causes the pie to bake more evenly. PIE AND TART FILLINGS. In the hotels a better and richer pie should be In pie making two kinds of paste are generally made than in the ordinary bakeries and cheap res- used. The paste which is to form the top crust is made richer than the paste used for the bottom, because the rich crust would become soggy if used for the bottom. The trimmings left over are used for bottoms the next day. taurants, where the mixtures have to be made according to the prices they sell for to obtain a reasonable profit. Fresh fruit should be used as much as possible. It makes the best filling. When the fresh fruit For custard pies, the paste should be worked gives out, then it is time to use preserved fruits, different. It is best to use a regular short paste, as given later on in the recipes. The habit of using pie trimmings for custard pies, working in more flour, makes a tough tasteless crust unfit to eat. The trimmings can be used to better advantage for fruit pies. The bottoms for cream and lemon pies can be made from any of the top or bottom paste, and also from custard pie paste. which are best if they are put up in the hotel. If canned fruits are used which are put up in factories, it is preferable to buy a good grade of fruit, because the cheap grades which are labeled pie fruits consist often of the inferior, unripe fruit without any flavor. Some of the canned fruits require additional cooking down with more sugar to make them usable. Dried fruit should be soaked in cold water from When the paste is finished it should be given twelve to twenty-four hours before using, and another rest before using. then it should be stewed, sweetened and cooled It is sometimes required to give one more turn before putting it in the pies. to the paste, when the butter runs, and in baking, Tart fillings are made richer than the pie fill- which happens mostly when the paste is made in ings and consist of rich preserves and creams, large batches and has not been rolled thin enough which are filled into the tarts and baked; and in before folding in three. some cases the tart shells are baked first and the Keep the puff paste covered up with a damp filling is put in afterwards. cloth or greased papers to prevent the drying of While many of the fresh fruits may be used in the paste, which would caus^ the breaking through the pies without previous cooking, some of the of the butter. fruits require stewing before they can be used. The rests between the rollings are given topreye PUFF PASTE. ^^o' '^^ paste from shrinking. If the rollings