[Sca-cooks] Flour Recommendation?
Elise Fleming
alysk at ix.netcom.com
Thu Apr 10 12:21:45 PDT 2008
Bear responded to my query:
> To quote Ivan Day, "Pies of this kind were constructed from a 'standing
> crust' made by mixing boiling water and butter into the flour. Once
cold,
> this stiff gluten-rich pastry was ideal for raising these complex
> structures, though it did not make for particularly good eating." (Eat,
> Drink & Be Merry)
I had asked Robin about the texture of the tart's crust and he had said it
was edible, not just a container as Ivan is referring to, which is what I
was trying to go for. I can see on the Hampton Court blog's video that at
least for his chewitts, the dough is a little on the "floppy" side since
when he raises the sides he smooshes the top rim into a narrower opening
than would result if he just raised the side and fluted it. My gripe about
my dough is that it was too floppy to lift onto a wide knife as the fluting
video shows. The completed tart with lid actually did keep its shape
pretty well when baking but I certainly wasn't able to lift it and lay it
on the dough for the lid to use as a template the way Robin does it in the
video.
> From the above quote, all purpose or high gluten bread flour would be the
> choice, since the plan is to make a high gluten, not so flakey crust. A
> soft modern pastry crust (IIRC) is roughly 3 parts flour, 2 parts fat,
and
> 1 part water by weight, so 2:1 or 3:1 might be a good ratio of flour to
> butter. To form the requisite gluten, you'll probably want to work this
> like a bread dough rather than a pastry dough.
Thanks for the numbers. I've done the 2:1 and thought that I'd do the same
the next time, only adding some extra flour so that it is a bit more than 2
parts flour to one part butter. Sheesh! Where are apprenticeships at
Hampton Court when you want them??!?
Alys Katharine
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