Puff-Paste

Ingredients

• 1 pound of butter
• 1 pound of flour
• About 1 cupful of cold water
• White of one egg

Method

1. 1

   Make a paste with flour and butter, roll together and fold several times to create layers.

2. 2

   Keep the pastry dry and cold.

3. 3

   Work the butter until smooth, then combine with the paste.

4. 4

   Roll to a rectangular shape and fold over the butter, then refrigerate.

As published

This recipe was extracted from Luncheons (1902) by Mary Ronald, page 57. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

PUFF-PASTE WITH KTRAWBEKRV JAM. HOT DESSERTS — COLD DESSERTS — PIES — TARTS 153 MERINGUES FILLED WITH WHIPPED CREAM OR WITH ICE CREAM Make oblong-shaped meringues, as for cream tart No. 1. Just before serving, fill them with whipped cream, or with ice cream, and press two together. If necessary, use a little white of egg on the edges to make them adhere. CHOCOLATE CREAM Scald two cupfuls of milk. Melt on a dry pan two squares of unsweetened chocolate, add the hot milk slowly to the chocolate, stirring all the time. Let it come to the boiling- point. Beat two whole eggs and two yolks with four table- spoonfuls of sugar, stir the milk and chocolate into the eggs, add half a teaspoonful of vanilla and a dash of salt. Turn the mixture into a mold, set it into a pan of hot water, and cook in a slow oven until it is firm. In order to have it smooth and solid it must bake slowly. Test it by running in the point of a knife ; if it is not cooked, it will coat the knife with milk. Unmold when cold and serve with whipped cream. CHOCOLATE SPONGE ]\Iake the same mixture as for chocolate cream. Instead of cooking it slowly, put it into a hot oven and cook it until the whey appears. By cooking in a hot oven it will be full of holes and have a sponge-like appearance. When cold, unmold it and let the whey escape. Serve with whipped cream. BAVARIAN CREAM GARNISHED WITH CREAM-CAKES Make a Bavarian cream (see "Century Cook Book," page 400), and turn it into a flat tin to harden. Have it about half an inch thick. When it is set, cut it into pieces two and 154 LUNCHEONS a half to three inches square, and arrange them, overlapping, in the center of a dish. Place around them small cream- cakes of one inch in diameter. Cornstarch pudding, jelly, or any mixture firm enough to be sliced can be served in this way. Left-over jelly can be melted and molded again in a layer, or it may be com- bined with custard, cream, crumbed cake, or anything suit- able that may be at hand, and turned into a layer-tin to stiffen ; then cut and serve as above. Any small cakes or sliced cake cut into rounds may be substituted for the cream- cakes. Chocolate Bavarian garnished with small cakes covered with white icing makes a good combination. PIES AND TARTS PUFF-PASTE Puff-paste is made of equal weights of butter and flour. The flour is made into a paste, the butter is worked uutil it is flexible, and they are then rolled together and folded several times so that many distinct layers of butter and paste are obtained. During the rolling air is imprisoned, and in baking the air-cells expand, separate the layers, and so inflate the pastry. In order to effect this result, it is necessary to keep the pastry dry and cold, and the butter cold, so that they will not mix in rolling, but be pressed into thin sheets. Careful handling is necessary. Many failures are the result of press- ing the paste in spots with the fingers, which prevents its rising evenly, if at all. A marble slab is desirable for rolling the paste on, as it helps to keep it cold. HOT DESSERTS — COLD DESSERTS— PIES — TARTS 155 Either of the following mixtures may be used : Xo. 1. 1 pound of butter, 1 pound of flour (pastry flour preferred) , About 1 cupful of cold water. Xo. 2. 1 pound of butter, 1 cupful of flour, 1 cupful of water. White of one ego-, Cut one sixth of the butter into the flour for the paste. Xo salt is needed if salted butter is used. Put the flour on the slab, chop into it, using a knife, one sixth of the butter, then moisten it with the water into which has been stirred the beaten white of one egg

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