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Paste Puff for Tarts, Etc
1 pound of flour 1/2 pound of butter 1 teaspoon of baking powder Divide the butter into three portions. Put the flour into a bowl, and mix the baking powder thoroughly with it, first, however, taking out three tablespoons for working the pastry. Rub one portion of the butter into the flour, and mix it with as little of the water as will make the paste smooth. Roll this out until it is an inch thick, then divide into halves. Put one half aside, and roll out the other until it is very thin, less than a quarter of an inch in thickness. Break up the second portion of the butter into small bits, and lay these over the paste, leaving a margin of quite an inch to allow for the butter spreading in rolling. Dredge with flour, and fold in three, then roll out until the paste is an inch thick. Treat the other half in exactly the same manner, using the third portion of the butter. When this is done, place the two pieces on top of one another, and roll out until half an inch thick. Now fold the paste, and place it between two dishes, and put it aside in a cool place until next day.
When rolling out the paste for trts, take care to keep it one way of the grain. If in using the cuttings they are placed straight, one on top of the other, the last bit of paste will be as light and flaky as the first used.
This is a rough puff paste, laminated in two separate halves that are then stacked — an unusual but effective shortcut to a flaky dough. The hinge is temperature: everything must stay cold enough that the butter stays in sheets rather than blending into the flour.
- Weights in cups1 pound of flour is about 3 1/2 cups; 1/2 pound of butter is two standard sticks (225 g). Weighing is better here, since the butter-to-flour ratio is what makes the layers.
- The water is unmeasuredThe original only says "as little of the water as will make the paste smooth," and that is honest rather than vague — flour absorbency varies. Expect somewhere in the region of 1/2 to 3/4 cup of ice water, added a little at a time until the dough just holds.
- Butter temperatureThe first portion is rubbed in and may be cool-room-temperature; the second and third portions are broken into bits and must be firm and cold so they flatten into sheets. If the butter smears or the dough turns greasy, refrigerate 20 minutes before continuing.
- "Dredge with flour"This means a light dusting from the three tablespoons set aside at the start, not a coating. Excess raw flour between layers makes the baked pastry dry and papery.
- The overnight rest"A cool place until next day" means the refrigerator, wrapped, for at least several hours. This relaxes the gluten so the paste does not shrink and distort in the tart tin.
- Baking powder in pastryA teaspoon in a pound of flour is a small insurance policy, found in some period pastry recipes, and it does no harm. Modern puff paste relies entirely on steam from the butter, so you can leave it out with no real loss.
- Keeping to the grainThe instruction to roll "one way of the grain" and to stack scraps flat rather than balling them up is the most useful line in the recipe. Kneading trimmings back together destroys the layers; pressing them in a flat pile preserves them.
- No oven temperature is givenLaminated paste needs a hot oven — 425 to 450F — so the water in the butter flashes to steam before the layers can settle. Bake tart shells until the edges are deep gold, not pale.
- YieldRoughly 1 3/4 pounds of pastry: two 9-inch tart shells with lids, or roughly two dozen small tartlets. It freezes well, wrapped, for a couple of months.
Recipes of this kind sat between the two poles of English pastry making: "puff paste," folded and rolled many times over hours, and plain short crust rubbed together in minutes. This method — laminating two smaller pieces separately and then stacking them — is a domestic compromise, and the appearance of baking powder places it no earlier than the second half of the nineteenth century, once chemical leaveners were widely available. Much everyday British and American pastry of the period was made with lard, suet or a lard-butter mixture, which were avoided by vegetarians and in Lenten and Friday cooking; an all-butter paste solved the problem without sacrificing flakiness. Tarts, both sweet and savoury, could carry vegetables, cheese or fruit into the place a joint would otherwise have occupied.