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Puff-Paste, French

Take the same quantity of butter as of flour, so that if you use two pounds of the one you must also use two pounds of the other; and so on. Weigh two pounds of very dry flour, and sift it; then lay it on the table, and make a very large hole in the middle; throw in a little pinch of salt, a few small pieces of butter, and three yolks of eggs; use a little cold water to melt the salt; take water enough to make the paste of the same consistency as the butter. In winter you must make the paste very firm, because then the butter is so; in summer you must make the paste very soft, on account of the butter being the same. The reason you are obliged to do so is, that if the paste were not made of the same substance as the butter, the latter, when you turn the paste, would break through. When you have worked the flour lightly, mould it into a large ball, which flatten as quickly as possible; turn it in a spiral direction, and flatten the middle. Lay butter on the table, with a little water, handle it to extract the white liquid, and squeeze it in a clean towel, that no moisture may remain. Lay the ball of butter over the paste, flatten the butter with a cloth, then fold the paste over the butter all round, but in a square form, so as to wrap it well all over. Try whether the paste is firm enough to prevent the butter from breaking through it. Now powder a little flour over the table and the paste. Roll the paste as smooth as possible with the rolling-pin as long as you can; fold it in three, and roll it over once again, taking care always to powder it over with a very little flour, to prevent it sticking to the table or to the rolling-pin. After having spread it well, fold it again in three. Make two marks on the top with the rolling-pin, to remember that it has been rolled twice. Then put it into a plate trimmed with a little flour: place it on the ground to keep it cool, and leave it there for a little while. Shortly after put the paste on the table, and proceed twice more as before; then let it rest again, and give it two turnings more, which makes six in all. Now give it a long shape, and fold it in two. You may then use it to make a vol-au-vent: when, at the latter end, fold the paste double only, and that is what is called half a turning. Of course you are aware that the paste must have had six turnings and a half before you can make a vol-au-vent, and that you must keep the paste thicker than for other small articles of pastry. Cut the vol-au-vent the size of the dish in which it is to be sent up, and immediately after put it into a plafond; brush it over with yolks of egg, open it all round with the point of the knife, and put it in a very hot oven. Mind that puffpaste always requires the oven to be very hot. If you are not careful to keep the oven shut the vol-au-vent will not rise properly. When it is well baked a fine colour, and you are certain that it is done through, take it out of the oven, remove the middle which served as a cover, empty and throw away the paste of the middle which is not baked, and lay the vol-au-vent cleanly on some paper to extract the butter. When you are ready to serve up, dish the vol-au-vent, and fill it with whatever you think proper. With regard to small articles of pastry, spread more puff-paste, and cut it with cutters of different shapes; if intended for entrees, brush the paste over with yolks of eggs, but de not glaze it with sugar. By glazing is here meant the sifting of finely-powdered sugar over the pastry when baked and emptied, and using over it a red-hot salamander, or else putting it into a very hot oven for the sugar to melt and glaze.