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Aunty Phelps' Pie Crust
To one pint of sifted flour, add one even tea-spoon baking powder, and sweet cream enough to wet the flour, leaving crust a little stiff. This is enough for two pies.
A three-ingredient pastry that relies on the fat already in the cream, so there is no cutting-in step at all. The whole recipe hinges on the cream being rich enough.
- Sweet cream means fresh, and rich"Sweet" here only distinguishes it from soured cream; it is not sweetened. Use heavy cream at 36% fat or better, since the butterfat is the only shortening in the dough. Half-and-half or light cream will give a dry, bready crust.
- A pint of flourFlour was measured by volume, so a pint is 2 cups, roughly 8 to 9 oz depending on how it settles. Sifting first, as directed, keeps it on the lighter end.
- How much creamThe original leaves this to judgement. Somewhere in the region of 2/3 to 1 cup for 2 cups of flour is a reasonable starting estimate; add it a few tablespoons at a time and stop while the dough is still a little stiff, as instructed.
- Baking powder in pastryAn even teaspoon means level, not heaped. Baking powders of this period were single-acting and varied by brand, so a modern powder may behave differently; too much will leave a chemical aftertaste.
- Handle it cold and brieflyWith no solid fat to keep separate, tenderness depends on not developing the gluten. Mix just until it holds, rest it 20 minutes in the refrigerator, and roll once.
- Temperature and yield"Enough for two pies" means two single crusts, or the top and bottom of one. Bake as the filling requires; for a blind-baked shell, 425F for 12 to 15 minutes with weights sets it before the cream fat can slump.
- SaltNone is listed, which was common in recipes of this period where salt was simply assumed. A half teaspoon in the flour is worth adding.
Cream pastry belongs to households that had a dairy cow rather than a reliable supply of lard or bought shortening, and it appears in community cookbooks of the late nineteenth century. Recipes in such books were largely contributed and often carry the name of the cook or contributor; who "Aunty Phelps" was is not recorded. The baking powder is the other date-stamp: chemical leaveners became cheap and widespread after the Civil War, and turn up in recipes, including pie crust, where earlier generations would have relied on cold fat alone.