The household cook book

The white alone will do if the pie is very delicate in color. A tablespoon of powdered sugar added to the flour makes the paste into a nice, short crust, for fruit pies. If in fruit pies the sugar is not added until after they are baked, and then the crust is lifted up and it is put in, less sugar will be needed. ( See what we say about "Using Sugar," in our chapter on "Cooked Fruit.") The Pbinciples Involved. — The principles involved in this mode of baking flour are as follows: In making paste or pie crust, the paste of flour and water is rolled out into very thin paper-like layers, with fat between. In folding and rolling it out, much cold air is imprisoned and distributed through the mass. When baked, this air is heated and so expands, and, being confined, it "lifts" the dough, or makes it rise and become light. This action is purely mechanical, without producing any chemical change like that worked by yeast. It is obvious that (he colder this imprisoned air is when the mass is ready to bake, the more it will be contracted, and, therefore, when heated, the more it will expand and lift the dough; hence the repeated injunctions to keep the mass as cold as possible. Eggs, when used, act in two ways — they increase the tenacity of (he dough so that it better retains the air, and when beaten up they carry a good deal of air into the dough. As soon as (he cold air expands, the mass should stiffen, before it has time to fall, hence the importance of having the heat of the oven right. 300 PASTKY It will be seen that the lightness of the pastry will depend on the amount and coldness of the air it contains before it is put in the oven, and the extent of the expansion of the air afterwards; therefore, other things being equal, the best pastry will be that which contains the greatest quantity of the coldest air before it is baked. Cooks with a hot hand will do well to mix the paste with a knife (a steel chopping-knife with a wooden handle is about the best thing) as the warmth of the hand will heat the paste in working it. The "flakiness" of the paste will depend on the number of layers of butter and paste it contains, but its rising depends on its air. We knew of an experiment in maiing some pastry in which the lady pressed it hard with her thumb in certain spots. When baked, it was light everywhere except where her thumb had pressed, and there it was soggy and heavy. The pressure of her thumb had forced out the air, so that in those places there was nothing to expand and "lift" the paste. This will show the importance of the lightness and deftness of touch in making paste, which we have elsewhere insisted on. Pastry, though generally liked, is not easily digested, and is not suited to delicate stomachs, although the strong may eat it. Flaky paste, although easily broken in pieces, is not easily pulverized or ground into a pulpy mass by the teeth, so that comparatively large-sized flakes are commonly swallowed, besides which the starchy matter, being enveloped in fat, is not readily reached by the saliva, and thus the first step in the conversion of fiour into sugar is prevented, while for the same reason it is not readily attacked by the gastric juices in the stomach. From these causes proceed the evil results so often experienced from eating pastry. When eaten, it should be very thoroughly and patiently masticated.