FoodNet

The Apsley cookery book

1905

Page 86 · 3 recipe records on this page

Presented as published in 1905. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
When rolling out the paste for tarts, take care to keep it one way of the grain. If in using the cuttings they are placed straight, one on top of the other, the last bit of paste will be as light and flaky as the first used. 397. Paste, Puff (Old Recipe.) Ingredients. One pound of Flour. | One pound of ButterOld Recipe Puff Paste. A teaspoonful of Baking-powder. Take three ounces of the flour from the pound, to use for working up the paste, and put the remainder in a bowl and mix it well with the baking-powder. Divide the butter into four portions, and rub one into the flour, then mix with as much water as will make a perfectly smooth paste. Now roll out the paste to the thickness of a shilling, and break up the butter into bits the size of a hazel-nut, and place them over the paste. Dredge lightly with some of the flour taken out for working. Be careful to leave a margin of an inch? to allow for the butter spreading in the rolling. Fold the paste into four, and roll out again to the thickness of a shilling. Repeat these directions exactly, in working in the third and fourth parts of the butter, 197 BREAD, PASTRY, CAKES, &c. When all the butter has been used fold the paste into three, and once again lengthwise, and lay it in a deep dish and cover closely. Let it stand in a cool place for at least twelve hours. This paste will keep two or three days without baking, unless the weather is very hot. Be very careful in making up the paste into tartlets, tarts, &c., to keep it the way of the grain in rolling out, or as the flakes lie. The cuttings if placed flat, one on the top of the other, and rolled out, will then be just as light and flaky as when first rolled out. Some cooks spoil quite a quarter of the paste in the making of tartlets, &c., by not observing this rule ; for if the cuttings are gathered up carelessly in the hand, and made into a ball, and then rolled out, all the work of the cook is spoiled ; for paste treated so will be very little better than ordinary short-paste. This recipe has been used in the writer’s family for over a hundred years, and if it is carefully followed the result is excellent. It may seem very troublesome to the novice, but after a very little practice it will be found that the paste is quickly and easily made, con- sidering the result. The only change the writer has made in the old recipe is to use a little baking-powder. Ihe preceding recipe is founded upon the old one, in the method of working the paste, but it is less rich ; it is, however, an excellent paste, and if instructions are carefully followed it will be found to be far above the average met with in middle-class households. 198 THE APSLEY COOKERY BOOK 398. Paste for Boiled Puddings. Ingredients. One pound of Flour I A heaped teaspoonful of Six ounces of Butter. | Baking-powder. Water. Paste for Boiled Puddings