The Winning Pie

New Zealand Listener, Volume 2, Issue 49, 31 May 1940, Page 45

The Winning Pie

Dear Aunt Daisy, I was so. disappointed that we were unable to hear you this morning. I did so want to hear that recipe for the apple pie-the £100 recipe, I mean. We do enjoy your sessions so much, but sometimes our reception is not so good -Balclutha is fifty miles south of Dunedin, you know. So we are a long way off. Would you put the recipe in your Listener page, please? I heard part of it,

and know that you said the winner rolled the pastry out seven times. I enclose a recipe for a sponge cake which never fails! Even though it uses four eggs, it is really not expensive, and is so very good. The ingredients are four eggs, 3 flat tablespoons of flour and 1 flat tablespoon of cornflour, making 4 tablespoons of flour altogether, 4 flat tablespoons of castor sugar, and 1 teaspoon of baking powder. Beat the whites of the eggs with a pinch of salt, add the yolks, and beat again. Add the sugar, and now stand your basin in a larger basin in which hot water is to come up half-way, and beat. Then fold in slowly the sifted flour and cornflour and baking powder. Bake as usual about twelve to fifteen minutes in two sandwich tins. FILLING. The filling we like is this: Slice up some bananas finely and put over the lower half of the cake; then pile whipped cream on top. Cut the other half of the cake in wedge-shaped sections and place them on top of the bananas and cream until all is covered -instead of putting the top half on in one piece, as usual. Then heat a knife in hot water, and cut through the lower half under the sections; and of course the cream stands up about half an inch thick and is very attractive and nice. -"Balclutha." We shall all try that sponge cake, I do assure you. What a good idea to place the top half on in sections like that -it must be much easier to cut through the lower half, and not have the cream disarranged, as it were. I shall use drained pineapple sometimes, instead of banana, and drained sliced peaches (the tinned ones) would be beautiful too. Here is Mrs. Thomas's prize-winning apple pie recipe: For the pastry use half a pound of | flour, 20z. of lard, 60z. of butter, 1 small level teaspcon of cream of tartar, a pinch | of salt, and cold water to mix. Sift the flour, salt and cream of tartar. Divide the fat into four parts. Chop one part of fat into the flour; and then mix it to a stiff dough with cold water. Roll it out now, and imagine it is divided into three sections. On the two top thirds, put another portion of the fat. Then fold up the bottom third, and. fold down the top third; so that the bottom piece is between the two fatty pieces. Pinch the ends so that the air is kept in, and roll out again. Repeat this another two times, so using up all the fat; and then fold and roll it another four times; making seven in all. Stand it if possible, for a few hours in a cool place; then put it on the pie, brush with egg and milk, and bake 1 hour. For the fruit, Mrs. Thomas used 6 uncooked Winter Magician apples. Peel and slice them, and pile them up high in the middle. Add a few cloves, half a cup of water, half’a cup of sugar, and a few knobs of butter. Make sure that the fruit is cooked-it should be cooked more slowly after the crust is cooked.