Paste Puff, Old Recipe 2

Ingredients for Paste Puff, Old

• 1 pound of flour
• 1 pound of butter
• A teaspoon of baking powder

Instructions

1. Old Recipe 2, Take three ounces of flour from the pound, to use for working up the paste, and put the remainder in a bowl, mixing it well with the baking-powder.
2. Divide the butter into four portions, and rub one into the flour; then mix with as much water as will make a perfectly smooth paste.
3. Now roll out the paste to the thickness of a shilling, and break up the butter into bits the size of a hazel-nut, placing them over the paste.
4. Dredge lightly with some of the flour taken out for working.
5. Be careful to leave a margin of an inch to allow for the butter spreading in rolling.
6. Fold the paste into four, and roll out again to the thickness of a shilling.
7. Repeat these directions exactly, in working in the third and fourth parts of the butter.
8. When all the butter has been used fold the paste into three, and once again lengthwise.
9. Lay it in a deep dish, and cover closely, letting it stand in a cool place for at least twelve hours.
10. This paste will keep two or three days without baking unless the weather is very hot.
11. Be very careful in making up the paste into tartlets, tarts, etc., to keep it the way of the grain in rolling out or as flakes lie.
12. The cuttings if placed flat, one on top of the other, and rolled out, will then be just as light and flaky as when rolled out at first.
13. Some cooks spoil quite a quarter of the paste in making tartlets, etc., by not observing this rule, for if the cuttings are gathered up carelessly in the hand, and made into a ball, and then rolled out, all the work of the cook is spoiled, for paste treated so will be very little better than ordinary short-paste.