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Classic
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page 285
Another good way to ascertain when the oven is heated to the proper degree for
puff-paste: put a small piece of the paste in previous to baking the whole, and
then the heat can thus be judged of.
Pie-crust can be kept a week, and the last be better than the first, if put in a
tightly covered dish, and set in the ice-chest in summer, and in a cool place in
winter, and thus you can make a fresh pie every day with little trouble.
In baking custard, pumpkin or squash pies, it is well, in order that the mixture
may not be absorbed by the paste, to first partly bake the paste before adding
it, and when stewed fruit is used the filling should be perfectly cool when put
in, or it will make the bottom crust sodden.
HOW TO MAKE A PIE.
After making the crust, take a portion of it, roll it out and fit it to a
buttered pie-plate by cutting it off evenly around the edge; gather up the
scraps left from cutting and make into another sheet for the top crust; roll it
a little thinner than the under crust; lap one half over the other and cut three
or four slits about a quarter of an inch from the folded edge, (this prevents
the steam from escaping through the rim of the pie, and causing the juices to
run out from the edges). Now fill your pie-plate with your prepared filling, wet
the top edge of the rim, lay the upper crust across the centre of the pie, turn
back the half that is lapped over, seal the two edges together by slightly
pressing down with your thumb, then notch evenly and regularly with a
three-tined fork, dipping occasionally in flour to prevent sticking. Bake in a
rather quick oven a light brown, and until the filling boils up through the
slits in the upper crust.
To prevent the juice soaking through into the crust, making it soggy, wet the
under crust with the white of an egg, just before you put in the pie mixture. If
the top of the pie is brushed over with the egg, it gives it a beautiful glaze.
FOR ICING PASTRY.
To ice pastry, which is the usual method adopted for fruit tarts and sweet
dishes of pastry, put the white of an egg on a plate, and with the blade of a
knife beat it to a stiff froth. When the pastry is nearly baked, brush it over
with this, and sift over some pounded sugar; put it back into the oven to set
the glaze, and in a few minutes it will be done. Great care should be taken that
the paste does not catch or burn in the oven, which it is very liable to do
after the icing is laid on.
Or make a meringue by adding a tablespoonful of white sugar to the beaten white
of an egg. Spread over the top, and slightly brown in the oven.
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