[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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