The Ideal cook book

705. Almond Pastry — Ingredients—¥ Ib. of flour, ¥% pt. of milk, a piece of butter the size of an egg, juice of 1 lemon, white sugar to taste, a handful of sweet almonds, yolks of 4 eggs, whites of 3 eggs. Make a batter with the flour, milk, lemon juice and sugar. Mix in (off the fire) the sweet almonds, chopped up, and the yolks. Let the whole get cold, then work into it the whites, whisked to a froth, and spread out the batter on a baking sheet. Sift plenty of powdered sugar over, bake ten minutes in a slow oven, and cut it out in strips; serve hot or cold. 706. Almond Pastry (2)—Ingredients—3 oz. of almonds, ⅜ lb. butter, 2 oz. of loaf sugar, a little rose water. Pound the almonds, butter, and loaf sugar with a little rose water till it becomes a thick paste. Spread it on a buttered tin, bake in a slowoven. When cold divide it into eight pieces, put a spoonful of preserves on each piece, and cover with whipped cream. 707. Pyramid Paste—Ingredients—A sheet of puff paste, raspberry or apricot jam, or currant jelly, dried greengages, cherries or barberries. Roll out the puff paste to half an inch thick ; cut or stamp it into oval shapes; the first, the size of the bottom of the dish in which you serve it, the next smaller, and so on till it forms a pyramid ; then lay each piece separately on paper in a baking plate, egg the tops of the pieces, and bake them ofa light color. When done, take them off the paper, lay them on a large dish till cold, set the largest piece in the dish, put on it either of the above preserves, lay the next size on that, and more sweetmeats, _and proceed in the same way with the other pieces till they are all placed on each other. Put dried greengages, barberries, or cherries round, and serve. Instead of stamping the pieces, they may be cut with a sharp knife; small pieces may be cut out round the edges to appear like spires, which will cause the paste to appear still lighter. 708. Paste for Mince Pies—Ingredients—2 Ibs. of the finest pastry flour, 2 lbs. of fresh butter, the yolks of 4 fresh eggs, 2 pinches of salt, the juice of half a lemon, tepid water. Work the butter in a napkin till it is well freed from water. Place the flour on the pastry slab in a heap, make a hole in the middle of it, put in it the yolks of the eggs, freed from the speck, salt, the juice of half a lemon, and the fourth part of the butter cut up in very small pieces; work the paste as quickly as possible with the fingers of one hand, adding as much moderately tepid water as will make the paste smooth, and of the same consistency as the remaining one and a half pounds of butter. Beat the latter out into a flat square piece an inch in thickness ; roll out the paste to four times the size of the piece of butter, lay this in the centre of the paste, which you fold over on each side, and roll out again to three times its original size, then fold over two sides only of the piece of paste, and roll it out again as before. Repeat this operation twice, cover the paste with a woollen cloth, and let it rest for half an hour. The operation of rolling out and folding up the paste is called “giving a turn.” After the paste has rested, two more turns are to be given to it, and it will be ready. 709. Pastry for Sweet Sandwiches-—Ingredients—7 tablespoonfuls of flour, 7 tablespoonfuls of butter, 6 tablespoonfuls of sugar, 7 eggs. Place the butter in a stewpan on the stove to melt ; sift the flour, add the sugar to the eggs (having removed them from the shell), place the basin containing the eggs and sugar in a saucepan of boiling water and whip the contents a quarter of an hour; then remove from the fire ; now add the butter and sift in the flour, lightly stirring all the time. Bake in tins lined with buttered paper, put into a quick oven and test with green straw.