PUFF PASTE

May be made with a pound of butter, and a pound and a quarter of sifted flour. The butter must be washed in cold water, and then squeezed very hard, and made up into a lump. Divide it into eight parts. Mix one part of the butter with the flour, adding just enough of water to moisten it. Roll it out; spread over it a second portion of the butter; flour it; fold it up, and roll it out again, adding another division of the butter. Repeat this till you get in all the butter, a piece at a time, folding and rolling the paste with each separate portion of the butter. Then set it away to cool. If it sets several hours, it will be the better for it; and better still if the paste is made the night before it is wanted; always keeping it in a cold place.

While buttering and rolling, do every thing as quickly as possible.

Before you put it into the dishes, roll it out once more. It is difficult in warm weather to make good puff paste without a marble table, or slab, to roll it on.