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Show Ideas on Mixing Pastry Flour topped either with whipped cream or a meringue to give the finishing touch. When a pie Is covered with meringue, It must go back to the oven to set and brown the meringue. A slow oven 300 to 320 degrees F. for ten to fifteen minutes gives the best results. Butterscotch Pie. 4 cup butter 1 cup brown supar 4 tablespoons flour 2 egg yolks 1 cup milk 2 epg whites 4 tablespoons sugrar teaspoon vanilla Cream together the butter, sugar and flour. Scald the milk and stli In slowly. Cook over hot water un til It thickens, and pour over the egg yolks slightly beaten. Cook one minute longer, then pour In a baked pie crust, cover with a meringue made from the beaten egg whites, sugar and vanilla. Place In a slow oven 300 degrees Fahrenheit, until the meringue Is brown. , 1933, Bell Syndicate. WND Servlcs. Proper Proportions Come First, and the Rest Is Mere Knack. This article Is devoted to the subject sub-ject of pastry, which has an undeserved unde-served reputation for being difficult to "make. First, there Is the flour either bread or pastry flour can be used for plain pastry. For puff pastry a quick puff paste bread flour must be used. Then there Is the shortening. Lard or one of the hardened vegetable fats make pastry tender. Butter, of course, gives more flavor and in some recipes you see a combination of It with the other more bland fats. Whatever fat Is used must be hard, and that means cold. The flour and salt are sifted together. All the shortening is added at once, and then It is cut Into the flour with two knives. A chopping knife may be used if you have a smooth wooden bowl In which the pastry may be mixed. The fat should not be cut too fine, as small particles of fat make pastry pas-try flaky. You may see some cooks use their hands to mix pastry, but if hands are naturally warm, the fat will not combine with the flour in the right way., The proportion of flour to fat, which makes a pastry rich enough to be tender, but which at the same time will roll easily, is three to one. After the fat is cut in the water is added. This is the only special point in making pastry. Care must be taken to add just enough, for if the dough gets too wet we cannot add extra flour without making the final product tough. I make a hole at one side of the mixed flour and fat and add one tablespoon of water wa-ter and stir Into that with a stiff knife enough water to make a stiff dough. I do the same at two other places in the dough. This will leave some loose flour, so I then take my fingers and press the balls of dough and the extra flour together. If I need a little more moisture I add a few drops of water at a time. The water used in mixing pastry must, of course, be very cold. After the mixing is done it Is a good idea to chill the dough before rolling, as It will be much easier to handle then. I usually wrap It tightly tight-ly In a piece of waxed paper. It will keep indefinitely in the refrigerator, refriger-ator, o it can be kept on hand. When I am ready to make up my pie, I take the dough out, cut off a piece to roll on a board, or a table top dusted very lightly with flour. Pastry should he rolled gently, starting start-ing from the center and rolling In each direction, so as to make the sheet somewhat the shape of the pie pan. The sheet of dough should be lifted during the rolling to prevent pre-vent Its sticking. The rolling should be done gently. For a pastry shell, the dough should be pressed over the edges and cut off. For a double crust pie It should be allowed tn extend over the edge. After the filling is put in, the edge should be moistened before be-fore the top crust is put over, and presided to the lower crust. The edges may be trimmed with the scissors and turned over, or bound with an extra strip of crust. Tn either case, the edges should be pressed flat with the fingers, or tines of a fork. Slits should be made in the center to let out the steam of the boiling filling. To prevent the crust of a fruit pie from soaking, use one tablespoon of flour with the same amount of sugar and sprinkle over the bottom of the lined pan before filling. A fruit pie needs a hot oven for ten minutes, after which the temperature tempera-ture should be lowered. A pastry shell should have a hot oven throughout the baking. Small tarts are prepared in the same way as a large pie, but with a little shorter time for baking. The tart shells can be filled with fresh fruit or berries, or with a crust, and |