Pies
Therichest pastry for pies is called puff paste, and much skill and practice are required to make it flaky, tender, and very light. First-class puff paste will rise in baking to double its thickness and be in light, flaky layers and without greasiness. The novice must learn to handle it as lightly and little as possible in rolling and turning. It should be put in the ice-box as soon as made and stand at least twelve hours before being used.
Pastry flour should always be used for pie crust. It is whiter than bread flour and when rubbed between the fingers it feels very smooth and soft, like corn-starch. Carefully sift before using.
Where it is desired to have a plainer pastry, or one less troublesome to make and more economical, the use of a small quantity of Royal Baking Powder will give a light and tender crust. As in other cases, the baking powder must be mixed and sifted with the flour before the shortening is added. Sweet home-made lard may be used in place of butter, either wholly or in part, giving a less expensive but equally good and light paste. Never use sour milk or so-called prepared or self-raising flours.
Paste for Pies.—3 cups sifted flour, ½ teaspoon Royal Baking Powder, large pinch salt, 1 cup cream, ½ cup butter. Sift flour, salt, and powder together; add the cream; mix into smooth, rather firm paste; flour the board, roll it out thin; spread the butter on it evenly, fold in three; roll out thin, and fold in three; repeat twice more and use.
Paste, 2.—3 cups flour, ½ teaspoon Royal Baking Powder, ½ pound beef suet, freed of skin and chopped very fine, 1 cup water. Place the flour, sifted with the powder, in bowl; add suet and water; mix into smooth, rather firm dough.
Paste, 3.—3 cups sifted flour, ½ cup lard, 1½ cups butter, ½ teaspoon Royal Baking Powder, 1 cup water. Cut lard into flour, sifted with powder; mix into smooth, firm paste with the water; place it to cool for 15 minutes; meanwhile press milk and salt from butter by pressing in clean, wet towel, and flour it. Roll out dough on well-floured board; place butter on it; fold dough over it, completely covering butter; roll it out lightly to ½ inch in thickness, turn it over, fold each end to middle, flour it, roll out again; fold ends to middle, and turn it; repeat this 3 times more, and use. If this paste is made in summer, put on ice after each operation of folding and rolling.
Paste, 4.—5 cups flour, 1 cup butter, 1 cup lard, 1 cup water, ½ teaspoon Royal Baking Powder. Sift flour with powder; rub in lard and butter cold; add the water; mix into a smooth, lithe dough.
Paste, 5 (Puff Paste).—3 cups sifted flour, 2 cups butter, 1 egg yolk, a little salt. This is difficult to make. The essentials are: A cool place to make it in, ice broken up in 2 shallow cake pans, good flour, and butter, firm, with salt and buttermilk worked out. Sift flour on pastry slab, form it in a ring with back of your hand. Place in center the egg yolk and salt; add a little ice-water, and from inside of ring gradually take flour, adding a little at a time, as you require it, more ice-water, about a cup altogether, until you have smooth, fine paste, very tenacious and lithe. Place in ice-box 15 minutes, then roll out to size of a dinner-plate; lay on it butter, and wrap over it edges of dough, carefully covering it; turn it upside down, roll out very thin; then turn face down—the face is side of paste next to rolling-pin—folding it in three, squarely; repeat thisthree times more, placing it in thin tin on the broken ice, and other tin containing iceon it, after each turn or operation of folding and rolling. By this method this difficult puff paste may be made successfully in hottest weather.
Paste, 6.—3 cups sifted flour, 1 large cup butter, ½ teaspoon Royal Baking Powder, 3 tablespoons sugar, ½ cup milk. Sift flour with powder and sugar, rub in butter, add milk; mix into a smooth dough of medium stiffness.
Apple Pot-Pie.—14 apples, peeled, cored, and sliced, 1½ pints flour, 1 teaspoon Royal Baking Powder, 1 cup sugar, ½ cup butter, 1 cup milk, large pinch salt. Sift flour with powder and salt, rub in butter cold, add milk, mix into dough as for tea biscuits; with it line shallow stewpan to within 2 inches of bottom; pour in 1½ cups water, apples, and sugar; wet edges and cover with rest of dough; put cover on, set it to boil 20 minutes, then place in moderate oven until apples are cooked; then remove from oven, cut top crust in four equal parts; dish apples, lay on them pieces of side crust cut in diamonds, and pieces of top crust on a plate; serve with cream.
Apple Pie.—5 or 6 apples, 1 cup sugar, ⅓ cup water, 1 teaspoon extract lemon, paste, 4. Peel, quarter, and core apples, put in stewpan with sugar and water; when tender, remove; when cold, add extract and fill pie-plate, lined with paste; wet the edges, cover with paste rolled out thin, and wash with milk; bake in steady, moderate oven 20 minutes.
Apple Pie, 2.—3 tart apples, ½ cup sugar, ½ lemon rind grated, paste, 4. Peel, core, and slice apples very thin; line pie-plate with paste; put in apples, sugar, and little water; wet the edges, cover with paste rolled out very thin; wash with milk; bake in steady, moderate oven 25 minutes—or till apples are cooked.
Dried Apple Pie.—Stew apples until quite soft; rub through a colander; have them juicy. Beat 2 eggs, saving the white of 1; ½ cup butter, ½ cup sugar to every pie; season to taste. Quantity of sugar must be governed somewhat by the acidity of the apples. Bake with a bottom crust; while they are baking make a frosting of the white of 1 egg; when pies are done spread frosting evenly over the top; set again in the oven and brown slightly.
Cream Pie and Oranges.—Cut the oranges in thin slices and sprinkle sugar over them; let them stand for 2 or 3 hours; serve in ordinary fruit-plates. The pie is made with a bottom crust only, and that not thick, but light and flaky. Take 1 coffee-cup thick, sweet cream, ½ cup pulverized sugar, 1 tablespoon flour, 1 egg; flavor with extract lemon; bake until you are sure the crust is brown and hard, so that it will not absorb the custard.
Banbury Tarts.—Chop 1 cup seeded raisins, add ½ cup cleaned currants, 1 cup sugar, 2 tablespoons cracker dust, 1 beaten egg, juice and grated rind 1 lemon. Roll pie crust, 5 very thin, cut in circles. Lay on each a tablespoonful of filling; wet edges of paste; fold each side over the middle to form pointed ovals, dust with granulated sugar, and bake 20 minutes in slow oven.
Cocoanut Pie.—Proceed as for custard pie, (plain), adding 1½ cups grated cocoanut, and leaving out ½ pint milk.
Cranberry Pie.—Paste, 4, 3 cups cranberries, stewed with 1½ cups sugar, and strained. Line pie-plate with paste; put in cranberry jam; wash the edges, lay 3 narrow bars across; fasten at edge, then 3 more across, forming diamond-shaped spaces. Lay rim of paste, 5, or of same; wash with egg wash; bake in quick oven until paste is cooked.
Custard Pie (Plain).—Paste, 6, 1½ pints milk, 4 eggs, 1 cup sugar, 1 teaspoon extract lemon, add pinch salt. Line well-greased pie-plate ¼ inch thick, take ball of paste, flour it well, and proceed, with palm of left hand pressed against edge, to push the paste from center into a thick, high rim on edge of plate. Fill while in oven with sugar, eggs, and milk, beaten with extract and strained; bake in moderate oven 20 minutes.
Custard Pie (Apple).—Proceed as for custard pie (peach), substituting thick, stewed apples.
Custard Pie (Peach).—Proceed as for custard pie (plain), laying in bottom of pie some cooked, fresh, or canned peaches, then adding the custard.
Fruit Pies of all Kinds.—Use about 3 cups prepared fruit for each pie. Heap fruit in center. Sprinkle with sugar to sweeten; if juicy, add 1 teaspoon or more of flour with sugar. Use pie crust, 4 or 6.
Gooseberry Pie.—Paste, 5, 3 cups gooseberries, stewed with 1½ cups sugar 15 minutes, and strained. Proceed as directed for cranberry pie.
Lemon Cream Pie.—Paste, 5, 1½ pints milk, 3 tablespoons corn-starch, 1 cup sugar, 2 tablespoons butter, grated rind and juice of 2 lemons, yolks 4 eggs. Boil milk, add corn-starch dissolved in a little cold milk; when it reboils, take off, beat in yolks, butter, lemon juice, and rind; pour at once into pie-plates lined with paste, having high rim—as described in custard pie; bake in hot oven until paste is cooked—about 20 minutes.
Lemon Cream Meringue Pie.—Having made the lemon cream pie, whip whites of 4 eggs to dry froth; gently incorporate 1 cup sugar; spread over top of pie; dust with powdered sugar; return to oven to set fawn color.
Lovers of Chocolate, in any and every form, can make this addition to a common custard pie. Beat 1 egg to a stiff froth, then add pulverized sugar and grated chocolate with ½ teaspoon extract vanilla; spread this on the top of the pie and let it harden for a moment in the oven. Or you may prepare it in still another way. Put the chocolate in a basin on the back of the stove, and let it melt (do not put a drop of water with it); when melted beat 1 egg and some sugar in with it. In the latter case it will be a regular chocolate brown in color, and in the other a sort of gray.
Mince Pie.—Paste, 3, 2 cups mince-meat.
Mince-meat.—7 pounds currants, 3½ pounds peeled and cored apples, 3½ pounds beef, 3½ pounds suet, ½ pound each citron, lemon, and orange peel, 2½ pounds coffee sugar, 2 pounds raisins, 4 nutmegs, 1 ounce cinnamon, ½ ounce each cloves and mace, 1 pint brandy, and 1 pint white wine. Wash currants, dry, pick them; stone the raisins; remove skin and sinews from beef and suet. Chop each ingredient, separately, very fine; put into large pan as they are finished, finally adding spices, brandy, and wine; thoroughly mix together; pack in jars; store in cold, dry place. Thismince-meat will keep from 12 to 18 months. The fruit should never be floured in making mince pie.
Mince-meat, 2.—2 pounds currants, 5 pounds peeled and cored apples, 2 pounds lean boiled beef, 1 pound beef suet, ¾ pound citron, 2½ pounds coffee sugar, 2 pounds raisins, 1 pound seedless raisins, 2 tablespoons cinnamon, 1 nutmeg, 1 tablespoon each mace, cloves, and allspice, 1 pint each Madeira wine and brandy. Wash currants, dry, pick them; stone the raisins; remove skin and sinews from the beef. Chop each ingredient up, separately, very fine; place as soon as done in large pan, finally adding spices, Madeira, and brandy; mix thoroughly; pack in jars; keep in cold place.
Peach Tart.—For each large peach allow 1 tablespoon sugar and 1 tablespoon water. Fill baking-dish with sliced peaches, add sugar and water. Cover with pie crust, 6, bake in moderate oven about 30 minutes. Serve hot with cream.
Plum Pie.—Paste, 5, 3 cups plums; simmer in water, cover with 1½ cups sugar, until tender. Line pie-plate with the paste; wet edges; cover; wash with egg; bake in quick oven 20 minutes.
Pumpkin or Squash Pie.—Use pie crust,4 or 6. Mix 3 cups thick stewed and sieved pumpkin or squash, 2 cups milk, 1 cup sugar, 1 teaspoon salt, 2 eggs, ½ teaspoon cinnamon, pinch cloves. Line 2 pie-plates as for custard pie; bake in moderate oven.
Rhubarb Pie.—Paste, 4, 1½ bunches rhubarb, 1½ cups sugar. Cut fruit in small pieces after stripping off skin, cook it very fast in shallow stewpan, with sugar. Line pie-plate with the paste; wet rim; add rhubarb, cold; lay 3 bars paste across, fastening ends; lay 3 more across, forming diamond-shaped spaces; lay round a rim, wash over with egg, and bake in quick oven 15 minutes.
Tarts: Gooseberry, Currant, Apple, or any other Fruit.—Time to bake, from ¾ to 1 hour. 1 quart gooseberries, rather more than ½ pound paste, moist sugar to taste. Cut off tops and tails from gooseberries, or pick currants from their stems, or pare and quarter the apples or peaches; put them into pie-dish with sugar, line edge of dish with paste, pour in a little Water, put on cover, ornament edge of paste in the usual manner, and bake it in a brisk oven.
Tartlets.—Time to bake, ¼ hour. Line some patty-pans with puff paste, fill them with any jam or preserve, and bake lightly.
Open Jam Tart.—Time to bake, until paste loosens from the dish. Line shallow tin dish with puff paste, put in the jam, roll out some of paste, wet it lightly with yolk of an egg beaten with a little milk and a tablespoon of powdered sugar; cut it in very narrow strips, then lay them across the tart; lay another strip round the edge, trim off outside, and bake in quick oven.