A Course of Lectures on the Principles of Domestic Economy and Cookery

to it. Cut two or three little slits in the upper crust. Take care not to press the outer edges of the crust together. After the upper crust has been put on the pie brush it with beaten egg, if you wish it to be glossy when it is done. Then put it in a moderate oven and bake it for three-quarters of an hour, until you are very sure that the apple is done. You can tell that by trying the apple through the little cuts that you make in the pastry. This morning, in making pastry, you remember that we rolled and folded it a number of times. I simply roll this out once, just enough to get it thin enough to use for my pie. First roll out the pastry, and cut off the cover for the top of the pie. Lay it one side, and then roll out the rest and use it for the pie, as I have already directed. Use Greening apples if you can get them. These are table apples. They are not so good for pies for two or three reasons. They will not keep their form when they are baked in the pie, and they may not be perfectly tender. These will break and grow very soft as soon as they begin to cook. I might, while I am making our pie, say a little about flour in general use in the family. As a rule I use what is called pastry flour, best for pie crusts. Pastry flour has more starch in it than ordinary family flour, or bread flour. The starch is the interior of the grain. The family flour is the grain ground entire, only the husk being removed. From grain ground in that way none of the nutritious elements are removed. You get a greater proportion of gluten, and some of the mineral elements of the grain that lie close to the husk; the flour that has an excess of gluten in it will absorb more water than pastry flour, or flour composed chiefly of starch, and