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PASTE, PUFF (an easy way of making)
Dry and sift the flour, and prepare the butter as in the last recipe. Equal weights of butter and flour may be used, or three-quarters of a pound of butter to each pound of flour. Put a little salt into the flour, and make it into a paste by stirring gradually into it with a knife rather less than half a pint of water. Roll it out till it is an inch thick. Divide the butter into quarters: break one of these quarters into small pieces, and sprinkle them over the paste. Dredge a little flour over it, and turn it over, then repeat the process until all the butter is incorporated with the paste. Let the paste rest for ten minutes between each two rolls. Equal parts of lard and butter may be used for this paste, and if the yolk of an egg or the strained juice of half a lemon be mixed with the water in the first instance, the paste will be lighter. Probable cost, 1s. 2d. per pound. (See also PUFF-PASTE, HOUSEHOLD.)
A rough-puff method: instead of enclosing a single slab of butter, you scatter it in quarters through successive rolls. It is more forgiving than classic puff paste and behaves well in a modern kitchen, provided everything stays cold.
- The hinge: temperatureThe butter must stay in visible flakes, not blend into the dough. Work on a cool surface, and if the butter begins to smear at any point, stop and chill the paste for 20 minutes before continuing.
- "Prepare the butter as in the last recipe"Victorian butter was often salted and wet, and the preceding entry very likely called for washing it in cold water and squeezing out the buttermilk, though the text of that recipe is not reproduced here. Modern unsalted butter needs none of this; simply chill it firm and reduce the added salt if you substitute salted butter.
- Quantities and waterPer pound (450 g) flour, use 12 oz to 1 lb (340-450 g) butter. "Rather less than half a pint" of water means an Imperial half-pint of 10 fl oz, so about 9 fl oz / 1 cup — add it gradually and stop when the dough just holds, as flour absorbency varies.
- Flour choicePlain (all-purpose) flour is right here. Strong bread flour makes the paste elastic and hard to roll thin.
- RestingDo not skip the ten-minute rests: they relax the gluten and re-firm the butter, and both are needed for lift. In a warm kitchen, chill the paste in the refrigerator for these rests.
- An inch thickThat is the starting thickness only, before the butter goes on. Subsequent rolls should take it down to about a quarter-inch before folding, and to an eighth of an inch for the finished pastry.
- BakingThe book gives no oven temperature. Bake hot, around 425-450F (220-230C). Steam is what raises the layers, so a hot start matters more than total time.
- YieldA pound of flour with its butter and water gives roughly 2 1/4 to 2 1/2 lb of paste -- enough for two covered pies of 9 inches, or a large batch of vol-au-vent cases. It freezes well, wrapped, for three months.
Cassell's gives more than one puff paste, and this one is frankly the shortcut. The scattering of butter in instalments, rather than the single enclosed block of the French détrempe, is the approach English books came to call rough puff, though modern rough puff usually works the butter in as cubes in one go rather than in four separate additions. The alternatives offered fit a picture of late-Victorian economy -- lard for half the butter, lard being cheaper and giving good shortness -- and the entry carries a costing of 1s. 2d. a pound, as such books routinely did. The lemon juice and egg yolk are traditional lightening tricks; acid does slacken gluten.