Harper's cook book encyclopædia

towards you, but drawing the whole roll along until it folds under the same length as the one on top. When it is all folded roll it out again, not being discouraged if the butter sticks to the pin ; scrape it off. Roll this way four or five times, or until the paste seems flaky, and the butter not in lumps, but rather in layers. One great secret is to roll from you, never towards you. and work it gently ; practice will give just the right touch. Some persons use lard and butter mixed, others contend that lard alone makes a richer, lighter crust; others prefer butter alone. If the oven be too hot, the crust will not rise, and if not hot enough it will be sodden. It is always best to try a small piece before you put in the whole. In fruit pies, that are apt to boil over, when the bottom crust is in the pie -dish, and just before you put on the second, moisten the edge of the former with cold water ; then pinch the edges of the two crusts well together, making plenty of air-holes, and there will be no further trouble. Plain pastry, quite palatable (indeed, preferred by some to the richer sort), is made very much as soda biscuits, viz., to two quarts of flour allow 1/4 lb. of butter and lard, made up into a moderately stiff dough with a pint of sour cream or buttermilk, in which has been dissolved half a teaspoonful of carbonate of soda ; knead only enough to mix well, roll out, and with it line your pie-plates. Puff Paste. — One pound of flour sifted three times, the yolks of two eggs, a bowl of ice-water, and I lb. of best butter. These ingredients will make a large quantity ; but as it keeps fresh in the refrigerator, and every scrap of it can be utilized, there is no waste, and the material for an entree or 2 52 Apple Custard Pie Apple Pie, Grated a quick dessert is always on hand. Wash the butter a day before it will be wanted, and return to the ice to harden. In making puff paste, as in mayonnaise dressing, the secret of success consists merely in keeping its ingredients ice - cold and touching with the fingers as little as possible. A marble slab makes the best pastry-board, and the rolling-pin, unless of glass or of porcelain, is to be thoroughly chilled before using by several hours' contact with ice. Mix the yolks and the flour, with a scant cupful of ice-water, into a stiff paste, using a metal spoon dipped occasionally into the ice-water. French pastry-cooks substitute a halfgill of brandy for one of the yolks of eggs. Roll out the paste, and place half the butter in the centre ; wash the hands in ice-water to chill them, and then cover the butter with the edges of the paste in such a manner that further rolling will not squeeze it out at the sides. Now roll into a strip four feet long and one foot wide ; dot with bits of butter, fold both ends to meet in the middle, fold once more in the same way, lay it upon a chilled platter, and return to the ice for an hour. This process of rolling and folding and dotting with butter until all the latter has been used is to be twice repeated, allowing a half-hour on ice between. Half an hour after the final folding the paste is ready for use.