SIMPLE SECRETS OF APPLE PIE.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXVI, Issue 18019, 6 November 1920, Page 10

SIMPLE SECRETS OF APPLE PIE.

Fine crust, fine cooking apples—the sort that cook into translucent solid jelly and not leathery strips; plenty of sugar to accomplish the jellying process; butter at discretion,, with no more than a spoonful of water to start the juices—these are the simple secrets of apple piecs that melt in the mouth. And the secrets of fine pie crusts are simple. Good flour, good fat, deft mixing with a light hand, a miserly eye for water and good baking —these are the secrets of pastry. A hot oven is a necessity for the quick blending of the flour with the melting fat, to make a crust crisp and tender instead of tough and soggy. The shortening should be very cold, so that it will rub to powdery crumbs with the flour, and the water for mixing should be cold likewise. A very little baking powder will spare the shortening, and the crust will stil be tender, but it adds nothing to the quality. A third of the flour’s quantity in shortening and a scant fourth in liquid or slightly less (three tablerpoonsful of water to one cup of flour),, with a sixteenth teaspoonful each of baking powder and salt, will insure a good crust, if mixed quickly, kept cold, rolled thin and baked in a quick oven. A most important point is the pie pan’s depth. A shallow tin should never be used, but one fully an inch and a half to two inches in depth.