Paste for Boiled Puddings

Ingredients

• One pound of Flour
• Six ounces of Butter
• A heaped teaspoonful of Baking-powder
• Water

Method

1. 1

   Combine flour and baking powder, rub in butter, and add enough water to form a smooth paste.

As published

This recipe was extracted from The Apsley cookery book (1905) by Webster, John J. Mrs, page 85. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

Half a teaspoonful of Baking-powder. Whisk the whites of the eggs for a few minutes, then sprinkle in the meal a little at a time, add the milk, and beat well for ten minutes ; let it stand for one hour, then fry as ordinary pancakes in a small frying-pan that has had a well-greased piece of paper rubbed over it. Serve very hot, with syrup. BREAD, PASTRY, CAKES, &e. 195 395. Paste (Fried). When paste, made according to either of the recipes, has been kept two or three days, and it is not required for tarts, &c., a very nice dish can be made by rolling it out three-quarters of an inch thick, and stamping it into small rounds, and frying these in either oil or Albene. The fat must not be quite so hot as for general frying. If the cook tries it by throwing in a bit of bread, and puts in the paste as soon as the bread crisps, and before the fat is hot enough to brown it, then the paste will be done perfectly. The rounds of pastry should have sugar sifted over them, and be piled on a dish paper. Any stewed fruit is nice served with them. 396. Paste, Puff for Tarts and Tartlets, &c. Ingredients. One pound of Flour. | Half a pound of Butter. A teaspoonful of Baking-powder. Divide the butter into three portions. Put the flour into a bowl, and mix the baking-powder thoroughly with it, first, however, taking out three tablespoonfuls for working the pastry. Rub one portion of the butter into the flour, and mix it with as little water as will make the paste smooth. Roll this out until it is an inch thick, then divide in halves. Put one half aside, and roll out the other until it is very thin, less than a quarter of an inch in thickness. Break up the second portion of the butter into small bits, and lay these over 196 THE APSLEY COOKERY BOOK the paste, leaving a margin of quite an inch to allow for the butter spreading in rolling. Dredge with flour, and fold in three, then roll out until the paste is an inch thick. Treat the other half in exactly the same manner, using the third portion of butter. When this is done, place the two pieces on the top of one another, and roll out until only half an inch thick. Now fold the paste and place it between two dishes, and put it aside in a cool place until next day. 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 Butter. 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

Cook this with the app: pantry check, scaling, and the assistant.