"'Meat for Repentance'--Pork pies for supper--or otherwise!"
Short Crust.
Take 1/2 lb. flour, mix with it 1/2 teaspoonful baking powder and put two
or three times through a sieve. Rub in 4 ozs. butter. If vegetable butter
is used, 3 ozs. will do, as it contains much less water. Beat up an egg.
Add a teaspoonful lemon juice to the flour, &c., nearly the whole of the
egg, and mix into a very dry paste with cold water. The mixing is best done
with a knife. Turn out on floured board and form into an oblong piece,
still using a broad knife as much as possible. Roll out evenly a good deal
larger than the dish to be covered, and cut off a piece all round, leaving
it the exact size and shape. Wet the edges of the dish, put a band of paste
on. Wet that again, and lay on the cover. Make the edges neat with a knife
or pastry cutter. Brush over with egg and bake in very hot oven for thirty
to forty minutes. If used for covering a fruit tart, dust over with sifted
sugar before serving.
Rough Puff Paste.
Take same quantities as for short crust. Divide butter into pieces on
floured board and flatten with the rolling-pin--a stoneware bottle, by the
way, is much better than a wooden rolling-pin. Put the butter with the
flour and mix as before with egg, lemon juice and water. Turn out on
floured board, make into a neat, oblong shape, beat down with rolling-pin
and roll out very evenly to about 1/8-inch thickness. Dust with flour and
fold in three, turn half round so as to have open end in front of one, and
roll out as before. Repeat this until it has got 4 turns, taking care to
keep the edges as even as possible, and for the last time roll out a good
deal larger than the dish. Put a band of paste on the dish, wet this and
lay on the cover. Flute the edges neatly. Brush over with egg. Cut the
trimmings of paste into leaves, &c., and decorate the pie, putting a rose in
the centre. Brush these also with egg. Make one or two slits to let out
the steam, and bake in hot oven. The oven should be made very hot
_before_ the pastry is put in, and then the heat should be moderated.
This can of course be managed best with a gas oven.
This rough puff paste is very suitable for small sausage rolls. Roll out
for last time quite square. Divide into nine equal squares, put a small
quantity of sausage meat on centre, wet edges and press together. Brush
over with egg and bake. Remember never to brush the edges with egg, as that
would stick them together and prevent rising.