Puff Paste

Ingredients

• One pound of best butter
• one pound of pastry flour
• one scant teaspoonful of salt
• about one cup of ice water

Method

1. 1

   Scald the bowl, fill with cold water, and dip hands into hot and cold water.

2. 2

   Wash the butter until soft and waxy, divide into four parts, and pat each into a long piece, wrapping in a clean napkin.

As published

This recipe was extracted from Mrs. Lincoln's Boston cook book (1884) by Lincoln, Mary Johnson Bailey "Mrs. D. A. Lincoln,", page 187. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

Puff Paste, when skilfully made, is light and tender, and so delicate that it cannot be touched without crushing. It should be thoroughly baked, and is therefore more suit- able for tarts and patties and the upper crust of pies. Eat it sparingly ; unless you have a good digestion, and exer- cise freely, never eat it. It is, however, less injurious than the ordinary pastry seen on many tables, as it con- tains no more shortening than much of the pastry made with a ''guess measure" of lard. It is not so much the amount of fat the paste contains that makes it indigestible, as the inferior quality of the fat, such as rancid butter or impure lard, or the soggy, greasy, half-cooked paste. Pastry that is light, dry, and flaky is more easily sepa- rated by the gastric fluids than that which is heavy. Many housekeepers use lard in making pastry, as it is cheaper than butter, and makes a softer and more tender crust. Butter is more wholesome, and is preferable if 3'ou wish to make a brown crust. A mixture of half lard and half butter answers very well for common paste, but for puff paste butter alone should be used. In French receipts for puff paste eggs are considered essential, but there is no necessity for their use. It requires practice to make puff paste well ; and as there are so manj' other dishes more easily made and vastly more important, it is better not to waste time and strength upon it. Let your ambition as a house- keeper soar higher than perfection in making puff paste. But those who will have it may observe the following directions. Puff Paste. — One pound of hest butter^ one pound of pastry flour ^ one scant teaspoonful of salt

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