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Puff Paste
1 1/2 cups flour 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 cup shortening ice water Cut 2 tablespoons shortening into sifted dry ingredients. Moisten to a dough with ice water, pat and roll about 1/4 inch thick on slightly floured board. Dot paste with 1/3 of remaining shortening. Dredge lightly with flour, fold from ends toward center, then double, making four layers. Chill, then pat and roll out. Repeat until shortening is used. Roll, shape, chill and bake in hot oven. This will make 2 crusts.
A standard rough puff paste from the era of hydrogenated shortening, written in shorthand for cooks who already knew the folding routine. The whole success of it rests on temperature.
- Oven temperature"Hot oven" in books of this period generally means somewhere around 400-450F; for puff paste aim at the upper end. That initial blast turns the water in the dough to steam and lifts the layers before the fat melts out; a moderate oven gives flat, greasy pastry.
- ShorteningThis almost certainly means a solid canned shortening rather than oil; a vegetable shortening such as Crisco is the obvious modern stand-in, though lard was still in use. Modern shortenings have been reformulated to cut trans fat and can behave a little differently in the hand. Chilled unsalted butter works and tastes better, but butter has more water and softens sooner, so extra chilling time between turns is needed.
- The hinge: keep it coldChill after every fold, not just when the dough feels sticky. Twenty to thirty minutes in the refrigerator per turn. If the fat begins to smear into the flour rather than staying in sheets, the layers are lost and no amount of rolling brings them back.
- Ice water quantityThe recipe gives no amount because it varies with flour and humidity. Expect roughly 6 to 8 tablespoons for 1 1/2 cups flour, added a spoonful at a time until the dough just holds together. It should look slightly shaggy, not smooth.
- Reading the folding directions"Fold from ends toward center, then double" is a book fold: bring both short ends in to meet at the middle, then close the whole thing like a book. That is the four layers the text mentions. Three rounds of this uses up the remaining shortening in thirds, as directed.
- FlourUse all-purpose. Bread flour is too strong and will fight the rolling pin; cake flour will not hold the layers.
- DredgingKeep the dusting flour minimal and brush off any excess before folding. Trapped dry flour shows up as grey streaks and toughens the finished pastry.
- YieldTwo crusts, as stated, meaning two 9-inch pie shells or the top and bottom of one double-crust pie. The dough freezes well wrapped tight; thaw overnight in the refrigerator.
- Baking blindFor an unfilled shell, chill the shaped crust hard, prick the base and weight it. Puff paste rises unevenly if left to its own devices.