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Pastry Baking and Crust Making

Specially prepared for the Five Roses Cook Book ERFECT PASTE requires few ingredients: flour, fat, water and COLD. The last is not the least important. Everything connected with the making of pastry should be thoroughly chilled, even the board and rolling-pin should be clean, smooth and cool. If, however, the housewife can work in a very cool temperature, it will save a lot of troublesome chilling of materials.

Unless the hands are cool and dry, the shortening should not be rubbed into the flour, not even with the tips of the fingers. A flexible, broad-bladed knife should be used for cutting and rubbing in the fat and mixing in the paste with the ice water. Handle paste as little as possible.

The shortening may be butter or lard, or half and half, or any of the vegetable shortening compounds now on the market. Of course, nothing can replace the flavor or texture obtainable from the use of the best butter, but economy and convenience are often factors requiring attention. Beef suet, dripping, meat fats are also used. Keep your shortening firm and dry-butter that has been mellowed by heat loses strength, and the paste cannot spring and puff in the oven as it should. One very useful pointer in making puff paste is to have the dough of the same consistency as the butter, so that in summer it is necessary to have it much softer than in winter.

Too much water toughens pastry, fat makes it tender; therefore fat rather than water should predominate in the mixture. Use only sufficient water to hold it together. It should be a smooth, dry mass easily lifted from the bowl; if it sticks or adheres at any point, too much water has been added. Sprinkle board and rolling pin with flour and roll lightly and evenly from front to back of board, then lift roller and begin again. Rolling in one direction and then in another is sure to toughen the paste.

Sometimes, as will be seen from the various recipes given in the following pages, a little baking powder is added to make the crust lighter, some sugar to improve the color, lemon juice to season slightly, white of egg to improve the texture, or yolk of egg to give it a golden hue or gloss the outside surfaces. If the butter has been washed free of salt, a little of the latter is sometimes added. These, however, are merely tricks of the trade and not essential to a well-made paste.