Sift one cupful of flour and one saltspoonful of baking powder together. Rub in two tablespoonfuls of shortening, mix quite stiff with ice water, using about one fourth cupful. Turn out on a floured board, pat, and roll till one fourth inch thick, then distribute one teaspoonful of butter over the surface. Sprinkle with flour and fold over and over, roll out again into a long strip, then roll like a jelly roll, and cut from end as needed, and roll out from end. The secret of good pastry is to thoroughly chill material.
For all fruit and custard pies brush bottom crust with white of egg before putting in filling. The crust will then remain dry and delicate.
One quart of flour and one pound of butter; sift the flour and work in the yolk of an egg well beaten; mix with ice water and roll out to the thickness of an inch or less. After the butter has been worked in cold water to extract the salt, place it on one half of the dough, folding the other half over it, set away for fifteen minutes in an ice chest, or other equally cold place, and then roll out into a long strip, which fold into three parts by turning over each end and rolling each fold; repeat this operation six or seven times. The colder the dough can be kept while being worked in this way, the better will be the results.
To one cupful of water add one cupful of molasses, one cupful of sugar, one beaten egg, one cupful of vinegar, two and one half Boston crackers, rolled fine, one cupful of stoned raisins, butter the size of an egg, one quarter of a teaspoonful of cloves; two thirds of a teaspoonful of cinnamon; two thirds of a teaspoonful of allspice.
This will make three pies. The pies should bake slowly, taking about three quarters of an hour. A grating of nutmeg should be added to each pie before putting on upper crust. The egg, cracker, and slow baking thickens this apparently thin mixture.
Carefully wash two thirds of a cupful of dried currants, add equal quantity of seeded raisins; with one cupful of sugar and one cupful of water; place in saucepan and boil gently for one half hour; remove from the fire and add two tablespoonfuls of vinegar, with cinnamon, cloves, allspice, and nutmeg to taste; two chopped apples, one tablespoonful of rolled crackers, half a cupful of chopped, sweet pickled peaches, or any preserved or spiced fruit; bake with two crusts. This will make two pies.
Make a boiled custard, with one pint of milk, yolks of two eggs well beaten, and three tablespoonfuls of sugar, place in double boiler and thicken with one tablespoonful of flour that has been blended with melted butter, add one half teaspoonful of vanilla, let cook until flour is thoroughly done (if too thick a little more milk can be added). Have ready a baked pastry, fill with the mixture; then whip the whites of the two eggs to a very stiff froth and add one half cupful sugar and a few drops of flavoring, spread over the pie; set in oven just long enough to set the frosting and touch it with delicate brown. Serve cold. A chocolate pie can be made after the same method by omitting the yolks of the eggs and beating into hot milk one-fourth cake of chocolate.
Beat three eggs until light, add three tablespoonfuls of sugar and beat again. Then grate sufficient nutmeg to flavor, and add three cupfuls of scalded milk. Bake slowly in single crust; as soon as the custard puffs and a knife blade can be dipped in and comes out clean, it is done.
Beat the yolks of three eggs until thick, add one cupful of sugar and the grated yellow rind of one large lemon (be very careful not to grate any of the white of the lemon skin or it will make pie bitter), also the juice; beat until thick and light colored, then add one tablespoonful of corn starch, dissolved in a little water. Pour into a pie shell and bake slowly until it puffs. Beat the whites of the eggs until light, then gradually add three tablespoonfuls of sugar and beat until stiff. When the pie is slightly cooled, cover with this frosting, return to oven, and let it get a very delicate brown. Serve cold.
To one and one half cupfuls of prepared squash, add one cupful of scalded milk, one half cupful of sugar, one saltspoonful of cinnamon, a dash of nutmeg and cloves, and one egg well beaten, pour in egged crust, and bake thirty minutes, or until it puffs up all over. Sweet potato may be used in place of squash. To prepare squash or sweet potato, steam and mash.
To one cupful of the fruit, washed and removed from stems, add one cupful of sugar; one cupful of cream, and one tablespoonful of flour; bake with only an under crust.
One Neufchatel cheese, one teacupful of sugar, grate the rind of one lemon and use with it one half of the juice, half a teacupful each of rolled cracker crumbs, and currants, four eggs, one tablespoonful melted butter, half a teacupful of cream, or rich milk, half a nutmeg grated and one saltspoonful of salt. Crumble the cheese and cracker crumbs well together, beat the eggs with the sugar and add to cracker mixture, following with the butter and cream. If the cream is very rich the butter may be omitted. Lastly, add lemon, nutmeg and currants. The currants should previously be washed, dried and dusted with flour. Mix all well together and put into well buttered patty-pans that have been lined with puff-paste. Bake fifteen or twenty minutes in a quick oven. They will puff up, but must not be permitted to get too brown.
Line a pie plate with pastry, and fill with mixture made of one ounce of butter, and one half cupful of sugar beaten to a cream; the well beaten yolks of five eggs, a grated pineapple, one teacupful of cream and add last of all the whites of the eggs beaten stiff and folded in lightly, with a little more sugar.
Line a pie dish with puff or good plain paste, lay halves of canned peaches, with the stone side up all over the bottom of the crust; fill the cavity where the pit was with a spoonful of chopped almonds; sprinkle with sugar and pour over a very little of the peach juice; cover with a crust, and bake till a nice brown; serve with, or without cream.