Pies and Puddings
Puff Paste.
One quart of pastry flour, one pint of butter, one table-spoonful of salt, one of sugar, one and a quarter cupfuls of ice water. Wash the hands with soap and water, and dip them first in very hot, and then in cold, water. Rinse a large bowl or pan with boiling water and then with cold. Half fill it with cold water. Wash the butter in this, working it with the hands until it is light and waxy. This frees it of the salt and butter-milk, and lightens it, so that the pastry is more delicate. Shape the butter into two thin cakes, and put in a pan of ice water, to harden. Mix the salt and sugar with the flour. With the hands, rub one-third of the butter into the flour. Add the water, stirring with a knife. Stir quickly and vigorously until the paste is a smooth ball. Sprinkle the board lightly with flour. Turn the paste on this, and pound quickly and lightly with the rolling pin. Do not break the paste. Roll from you and to one side; or, if easier to roll from you all the while, turn the paste around. When it is about one-fourth of an inch thick, wipe the remaining butter, break it in bits, and spread these on the paste. Sprinkle lightly with flour. Fold the paste, one-third from each side, so that the edges meet. Now fold from the ends, but do not have these meet. Double the paste, pound lightly, and roll down to about one-third of an inch in thickness. Fold as before, and roll down again. Repeat this three times if for pies, and six times if for vol-au-vents, patties, tarts, etc. Place on the ice, to harden, when it has been rolled the last time. It should be in the ice chest at least an hour before being used. In hot weather if the paste sticks when being rolled down, put it on a tin sheet and place on ice. As soon as it is chilled it will roll easily. The less flour you use in rolling out the paste the tenderer it will be. No matter how carefully every part of the work may be done, the paste will not be good if much flour is used.
Chopped Paste.
One quart of pastry flour, two cupfuls of unwashed butter, one teaspoonful of salt, one table-spoonful of sugar, and a scant cupful of ice water. Put the flour, salt, sugar and butter in the chopping-tray. Chop all together until the butter is thoroughly mixed with the flour; then add the water, and continue chopping. When well mixed, sprinkle the board with flour, turn the paste on it, and roll into a flat piece. Place in a pan on the ice. When hard, use the same as puff paste. It can be used as soon as mixed, but will not, of course, be so nice.
French Paste for Raised Pies.
One quart of pastry flour, one table-spoonful of sugar, one teaspoonful of salt, one scant cupful of butter, one egg, one tea-cupful of water. Rub the butter, salt and sugar into the flour. Beat the egg, and add the water to it. Stir this into the flour and butter. Stir this mixture until it is a smooth paste; then put on the board and roll the same as puff paste. This paste must be rolled eight times.
To Make a Pie.
Butter the pie plate (tin is the best), and cover with paste that has been rolled very thin. Roll a strip of paste long enough to go around the plate, and cut in strips an inch wide. Wet the edge of the plate with water, and put a strip of paste on it. Fill with any kind of prepared fruit Have the paste in a roll, and cut enough from the end to cover the pie. Sprinkle the board lightly with flour, and place the paste up-on it. Flour the rolling pin with, the hand. Roll from you and to one side until the paste is the right size. It must be much larger than the plate. In the centre cut a slit about halt an inch long. Cover the pie, having the paste “fulled” on, as it shrinks in the baking. The oven must be hot at first, and after the first fifteen minutes the drafts must be closed. A mince pie will require one hour to bake, and an apple pie fifty minutes. Peach, and nearly all other fruit pies, require the same time.
Mince Pie Meat.
Boil a beef tongue, weighing six pounds, and six pounds of the vein of a round of beef (these should just simmer). After skinning the tongue, chop it and the beef very fine, and add five pounds of beef suet, chopped fine; five pounds of stoned raisins, three of dried currants, one and a half of citron, cut fine; nine of sugar, one and a half pints of molasses, two quarts of the liquor in which the meat was boiled, one quart of brandy, one pint of white wine, a cupful of salt, half a cupful of cinnamon, one-fourth of a cupful of cloves, one-fourth of a cupful of allspice, three nutmegs, a table-spoonful of mace. Put all in a large pan, and let stand over night. Put what you wish to bake in another pan with half as much stewed and sweetened apple as you have meat, and let it stand one hour. Put the remainder of the meat in a jar. Cover with a paper dipped in brandy, and then cover tightly, to exclude the air. Set in a cool place for future use, [Mrs. M. L. W.]
Squash pies.
Five pints of stewed and strained squash, two quarts of boiling milk, one and a half nutmegs, four teaspoonfuls of salt, five cupfuls of sugar, nine eggs, four table-spoonfuls of Sicily Madeira and two of rose-water. Gradually pour the boiling milk on the squash, and stir continually. Add the nutmeg, rose-water and sugar. When cold, add the eggs, well beaten; and just before the mixture is put in the plates, add the Madeira. Butter deep plates, and line with a plain paste. Fill with the mixture, and bake in a moderate oven for forty minutes. [Mrs. M. L. W.]
Sweet Potato Pies.
When the potatoes are dry and mealy, take a quart after they have been pared, boiled and mashed, a quart of milk, four eggs, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon and sugar to taste. Bake the same as squash pies. If the potatoes are very moist, use less milk.
Lemon Pie.
The juice and rind of one lemon, two eggs, eight heaping table-spoonfuls of sugar, one small tea-cupful of milk, one teaspoonful of corn-starch. Mix the corn-starch with a little of the milk. Put the remainder on the fire, and when boiling, stir in the corn-starch. Boil one minute. Let this cool, and add the yolks of the eggs, four heaping table-spoonfuls of the sugar, and the grated rind and juice of the lemon, all well beaten together. Have a deep pie plate lined with paste, and fill with this mixture. Bake slowly half an hour. Beat the whites of the eggs to a stiff froth, and gradually beat into them the remainder of the sugar. Cover the pie with this, and brown slowly.
Orange Pies.
Two cupfuls of sugar, two of flour, five eggs, one tea-spoonful of cream of tartar, half a teaspoonful of soda, the juice and rind of one orange. These are for the cake. Beat the eggs very light; then add the sugar, and beat until frothy. Now add the orange. Mix the soda and cream of tartar with the flour, and rub through a sieve on to the beaten eggs and sugar. Stir well, and bake in deep tin plates. There will be enough for six plates. When baked, put a thin layer of the icing between the cakes, and cover the pie with icing. There should be three cakes in a pie. Icing: The whites of four eggs, one tea-cupful of powdered sugar, the juice and rind of two oranges. After beating the whites to a stiff froth, beat in the sugar and then the rind and juice of the oranges. When the pies are iced, dry them in the heater.
Chocolate Pies.
Make plain cup cake, and bake in Washington-pie plates, having the cake thick enough to split. After splitting, spread one half with a filling made as below, place the top piece on, and sprinkle with powdered sugar. The cake should always be fresh.
Filling: One square of Baker’s chocolate, one cupful of sugar, the yolks of two eggs, one-third of a cupful of boiling milk. Mix scraped chocolate and sugar together; then add, very slowly, the boiling milk, and then the eggs, and simmer ten minutes, being careful that it does not burn. Flavor with vanilla. Have fully cold before using.