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Short Crust, a Substitute for Puff-Paste
When puff paste cannot be had, pastry made according to any of the following recipes may be used instead. It should be made in a cool place and should be handled very lightly. A moderately-heated oven will be required for baking it. No. 1.--Rub three ounces of fresh butter into a pound of flour till it is as fine as possible; add a pinch of salt and two table-spoonfuls of powdered leaf sugar, and make a smooth paste with two eggs beaten up with milk or cream. Roll out thin. No. 2.--Rub three ounces of butter into a pound of flour; add a pinch of salt and a table-spoonful of powdered sugar, and beat the whole to a smooth paste with a quarter of a pint of boiling cream. No. 3.--Rub eight ounces of butter into a pound of flour, and add a pinch of salt, two table-spoonfuls of powdered sugar, and as much milk as will make a firm smooth paste. If a richer crust is required, ten ounces of butter may be used. (See also PASTE, SHORT.)
Three sweetened short pastes of increasing richness, offered when there is no time or no cool room for puff paste. The instruction that matters is the one given first: keep everything cold and work fast, because these doughs are held together by butter that has not melted into the flour.
- A moderately-heated ovenRead that as 350-375F (175-190C). Blind-baked tart shells do better at the upper end; a filled tart at the lower, so the crust sets before the filling boils.
- The measuresA pound of flour is about 450g, roughly 3 1/2 cups scooped and levelled. The quarter-pint of cream in No. 2 is an imperial quarter-pint, 5 fl oz or about 150ml, not the 4 fl oz an American quarter-pint would give.
- Powdered leaf sugarAlmost certainly loaf sugar pounded fine, which is what we call caster or superfine sugar. Do not substitute modern confectioners' sugar, which carries cornflour and will make the paste chalky.
- Fresh butterUnsalted butter. Nineteenth-century salted butter was salted heavily for keeping, so the pinch of salt in each recipe assumes an unsalted fat.
- The three are not interchangeableThe three differ considerably in richness -- No. 1 and No. 2 carry only 3 oz butter to the pound of flour, against 8-10 oz in No. 3 -- though the book itself offers all three as equivalent substitutes for puff paste.
- Boiling cream in No. 2The hot liquid scalds the flour somewhat, in the manner of a hot-water crust, though with only a quarter-pint to the pound of flour the effect is limited. It is easier to work while still warm.
- Rest before rollingThe book says nothing about it. Wrap and chill Nos. 1 and 3 for half an hour so the gluten relaxes and the butter firms; the pastry will shrink far less in the tin.
- YieldA pound of flour makes roughly 1 1/2 lb of paste in Nos. 1 and 2, and more in No. 3 with its extra butter; enough to line two 9-inch tart tins, or one with a lid and trimmings for tartlets.
Puff paste was regarded as a benchmark of skill that needed a cold slab, unhurried time and a kitchen not already hot from the range -- conditions this recipe's own opening acknowledges. The sweetened short pastes here belong to the same family as the French pate sucree. The cross-reference to PASTE, SHORT reflects the dictionary format: the same preparation could appear under whatever name a reader thought to look up.