The Story of Crisco Part 19

Roll out lightly and use for tartlets or one crust pie.

Sufficient for two large pies.

Double Pie

Top Layer

1 cupful sugar 1 cupful sweet milk 2 eggs 2 cupfuls flour 1/2 cupful Crisco 2 teaspoonfuls baking powder 1/2 teaspoonful salt

Under Layer

1 cupful mola.s.ses 1 cupful brown sugar 1 pint hot water Plain Crisco Pastry 1 lemon 1 egg 2 tablespoonfuls flour

Line large pie plate with pastry.

_For under layer._ Mix sugar with flour, add mola.s.ses, egg well beaten, grated lemon rind, and hot water, and pour into prepared pie plate.

_For top layer._ Cream Crisco and sugar together, add eggs well beaten, milk, salt, flour, and baking powder. Spread mixture over under layer and bake in hot oven thirty-five minutes.

Sufficient for two large pies.

Almond Layer Pie

For Pastry

2 cupfuls flour 7 tablespoonfuls Crisco 1/2 teaspoonful salt Water

For Filling

6 tablespoonfuls Crisco 3/4 cupful sugar 1 lemon 3 eggs 1/2 cupful blanched powdered almonds 1/4 teaspoonful salt

Make short crust of Crisco, flour, salt, and water. Roll out thin, and line Criscoed pie plate with piece of paste.

_For filling._ Cream Crisco and sugar together, add eggs well beaten, almonds, salt, grated rind and one tablespoonful lemon juice. Mix well and spread one-half of mixture on to pastry. Then cover with a layer of pastry, the rest of mixture, and lastly cover with pastry. Bake in a moderate oven until brown. Or the pastry may be rolled out, brushed over with melted Crisco, the mixture spread over it, and rolled up to form a roly-poly. Lay on a Criscoed tin and bake in moderate oven until brown.

Sufficient for one large pie.

Flake Pastry No. 1

2 cupfuls flour 8 tablespoonfuls Crisco 3/4 teaspoonful salt Just enough cold water to hold dough together

Sift flour and salt and cut half the Crisco into flour with knife until it is finely divided. The finger tips may be used to finish blending materials. Then add water sparingly, mixing it with knife through dry materials. Form with the hand into dough and roll out on a floured board to quarter inch thickness. Spread one-third of remaining Crisco on two-thirds of dough nearest you; fold twice, to make three layers, folding in first that part on which Crisco has not been spread. Turn dough, putting folded edges to the sides; roll out, spread and fold as before. Repeat once more. Use a light motion in handling rolling-pin, and roll from center outward. Should Cris...o...b.. too hard, it will not mix readily with flour, in which case the result will be a tough crust.

Sufficient for two covered pies.

Flake Pastry No. 2

1/2 teaspoonful salt 2 cupfuls flour 1/2 cupful Crisco Cold water

Mix salt with flour; divide Crisco into four equal parts, rub in one of these only, and then mix to stiff paste with a little cold water.

Shape into neat oblong piece, and roll into straight strip about three times as long as it is broad. All over this put on, with the point of knife, one of remaining quarters of Crisco, distributing it evenly in little dabs about size of a pea, so that they look like b.u.t.tons on a card. Now flour surface lightly and fold paste exactly in three by taking hold of the two bottom corners and doubling them upwards from you and then of the top corners and doubling them downwards towards you. Turn now at right angles to its former position so as to have open ends pointing towards you. Press these quickly together with the roller to inclose some air, and press paste across also in two or three places, making little ridges, thus preventing air which has been shut in, from forming into large bubble. Roll out again, and repeat till remaining two parts of Crisco have thus been used. At the last rolling, bring to required thickness; and if it needs widening as well as lengthening, turn it at right angles to its former position, and roll straight across it as before, a rule which, with flaky pastry, should always be observed, since, unlike the short pastries, its lightness suffers if rolled obliquely to the direction in which it has been folded.

Sufficient for two small pies.

Puff Pastry

1 teaspoonful salt 1 cupful Crisco 2 cupfuls flour 1 yolk of egg 2 teaspoonfuls lemon juice Cold water

Measure Crisco and set in cold place to chill it. Sift flour and salt into basin, and add lemon juice. Take a quarter of the Crisco, and rub it lightly into flour with finger tips until there are no lumps left.

Beat yolk of egg and add a little cold water, then add them to the flour, making them into a stiffish dough. Turn this on to floured board, and work well with hands until it will no longer stick to fingers and forms a perfectly smooth dough. Form into oblong piece and roll out to about half inch thickness. The Crisco to be used should be as nearly, as possible of same consistency as the paste.

Form it into neat flat cake, and place in center of pastry. Fold up rather loosely, and flat the folds with rolling-pin. Place in refrigerator for ten minutes. Then roll out pastry into long narrow strip, being careful that Crisco does not get through. Fold exactly in three, press down folds, and lay aside in cool place or in refrigerator fifteen minutes. This is called giving the pastry one "turn" and seven of these is the number required for this pastry. The next time the pastry is rolled, place it with the joins at your right hand side, and open end's towards you. Give two "turns" this time, and again set aside in cool place for at least fifteen minutes.

Repeat this until pastry has had seven rolls in all. The object of the cooling between the rolls is to keep Crisco and flour in distinct and separate layers, in which it is the function of the rolling-pin and folding to arrange them, and on which the lightness of the pastry depends.

When rolling, keep the pressure of the two hands as equal as possible.

If the pastry becomes rounded, it shows that there is more pressure being done on the rounded side than the other. After it has received its last roll, it is better to be laid aside before using, then rolled to the thickness required.

Sufficient for two pies.

Rough Puff Pastry

2 cupfuls flour 1/2 cupful Crisco, generous measure 1/2 teaspoonful salt 1 teaspoonful lemon juice 1 egg Cold water

Have Crisco cold and firm. Sift flour and salt into basin, add Crisco and cut into pieces one inch square. Beat up egg, add lemon juice and a very little cold water, then add them gradually into other ingredients making them into a stiff paste. Roll in a long piece on floured board, fold in three, turn rough edges toward you and roll out again, continuing this for five times. Place in refrigerator or in cool place ten minutes between each rolling. This pastry may be used at once for all kinds of sweet or savory pies, but it is improved by standing for a few hours in a cool place. Bake in hot oven. Sufficient for two covered pies.

German Paste

5 cupfuls flour 1 1/2 cupfuls Crisco 1/3 cupful ground almonds 1 cupful sugar 2 eggs 2 yolks of eggs 1 1/3 teaspoonfuls salt Water

Sift flour and almonds into basin, rub Crisco into them, add salt, sugar, eggs well beaten and water to make stiff paste. Leave in cool place two hours, then roll out and use for pies and tartlets.

Sufficient for four pies.