After All Pastry-Making Is Not So Difficult

Radio Record, Volume VIII, Issue 26, 4 January 1935, Page 49

After All Pastry-Making Is

Not So Difficult

How to Achieve the Difference Between ‘Heavy and Light FYAVE ; you ever. thought}: When congratulating a friend on i her "delicious mince pies,’ that the kind of pastry used has as much to do witht their success as the fact that they are light and well baked? ~ It’s all in the art of pastrymaking, and any housewife should be able to acquire this by following simple directions.

SOME people prefer a rich puff pastry, others find a short crust.more digestible, Here are a few different recipes for the pastry for mince pies starting with the flaky variety. , To make this you need ilb, flour, 80z. lard, 60z. butter, a pinch of salt, two teaspoons baking powder, water to mix. Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt into a mixing bowl, add a dessertspoonful of castor sugar, then rub in the butter gradually with the fingers. Add sufficient water (the yolk of an egg is a great improvement) to form into a stiff paste, then roll out to a quarter of an inch thick on a lightly floured board. Cover the pastry with the lard, cut into small pieces, dredge with flour, fold the sides of the pastry inwards, then over in three, Puff pastry is made with the following ingredients:-llh, flour, a heaped teaspoon baking powder, a pinch of salt, &lb. butter, a teaspoon of lemon juice. Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt, add the lemon juice and sufficient

cold water to mix to a soft dough, ' Place on a floured board and work with a. knife until quite smooth. Roll out, spread a third of the butter cut info small pieces on the pastry, turn the ends over, and.fold into three and roll.out. Repeat this process twice with the vest of the butter. After the tinal rolling cover the pastry with a cloth and stand in a cold place-for two or three hours before using. Here js a recipe for short pastry, the kind that melts in your mouth :-1ilb. flour 80z. butter, a pinch of salt, cold water, 4 small teaspoon baking powder. Sift the flour, salt and baking powder, rub the butter in lightly with the finger tips until the mixture is fine and crumbly. Add sufficient cold water to form a stiff paste, then rol] out. i If the pastry is liked sweet add .two teaspoonfuls of castor sugar before rolling. A plainer short pastry is made witth 1lb. flour, half a teaspoonful of baking powder, 4lb, lard, or lard and butter

~ a mixed, -a pinch of, salt, and cold water to mix. Make it: in the same way as for the short crust above. Roll dut again to the same thickness on a floured board, cut into rounds to line small greased patty tins, place a _teaspoonful of .mince-meat in each, ‘brush the edges with cold water, and cover with a lid of pastry. Presg.'the edges: together, prick the centre with‘a skewer, then brush the tops over with. a beaten egg and ‘milk and dredge‘lightly with castor sugar. Bake in & hot. oven’ for. 15. minutes. Cool on a wire rack, and when cold store in a tin. Heat up when required.