OT Pastry Wars

thanks, Polly.
cream cheese in pastry is a new concept to me.
i could see it going well with several pie/tart fillings we bake here at
various times.
at the moment, wee strawberry tarts would go down well. we're picking a
punnet every couple of days now. we have more plants than we need for the
two of us. shrug
j.

"Polly Esther" wrote...
Just about anything, Jeanne. It is a very fine but quite basic recipe. If
you're tempted, you could sneak in a little lemon zest for a lemon pie . . .
etc. If I'm baking a 'wet' pie such as pecan, I paint the pastry with egg
white and bake it for about 5 minutes before I add the filling. That's sort
of like a coat of shellac but tastes better. Polly


"J*" wrote...
Polly,
what fillings does this recipe work with?
j.

"Polly Esther" ...
Cream Cheese Pastry for beginners
1 'softened' 8oz pkg cream cheese
1 cup margarine ( that's 2 sticks) (also softened)
2 cups flour
½ teaspoon salt

Mix cream cheese and margarine until well blended. Add flour and salt;
mix well. Form into a ball, chill.
Divide dough in half. Lightly flour a sheet of plastic wrap. Place half
of the dough on plastic, lightly flour and cover with another sheet of
plastic wrap. Gently, gently roll out into a circle.
Place in pie pan. Trim, flute, prick. Repeat with other half. Bake at
450° about 12 minutes or proceed with another method. The plastic wrap is
really not necessary for experienced pastry chefs but surely is helpful
for those of us who don't bake pies very often. Polly

thanks for those ideas, Sandy.
we do small, perfect size to go with a cuppa, size tarts.
mince, lemon curd, might do some pecan this yr, almond? hmmm, google that
one i think,
fresh strawberry now too as we're picking lots at the moment...high season
in our backyard, lol.
a wee bit of whipped cream on top of some of those at the last minute always
goes down well too.
sometimes i roll, other times i press the pastry to fit. it varies according
to the mood i'm in at the time.
thanks again,
j.

Mine is identical to Polly's, Jeanne! I love it in mince tartlets or
with an almond filling, but you could use it with any filling. The
advantage to tartlets is that you don't even have to roll out the
pastry; just take a little ball of it and press it into the tartlet
pans. Yum!
Sandy

post it please, Sandy, so we can compare stuff.
what fillings do you use with your pastry?
j.

We just had a boom of a year with strawberries. The everbearing ones
really are. I was out doing some chores today and found a few berries
ready to eat! They last few are still really good. Worth the effort here
in the desert where not everything does well.
Taria

"Polly Esther" wrote in message ...

I have a pitiful note by the pastry recipe. It says, "don't even try if the
strawberries aren't good". No pastry in the world can overcome pretty and
tasteless strawberries. Apparently I made a beautiful and boring strawberry
pie using that pastry. Do you think I need to grow my own strawberries?
Polly


"J*" wrote in message
...
thanks, Polly.
cream cheese in pastry is a new concept to me.
i could see it going well with several pie/tart fillings we bake here at
various times.
at the moment, wee strawberry tarts would go down well. we're picking a
punnet every couple of days now. we have more plants than we need for the
two of us. shrug
j.

"Polly Esther" wrote...
Just about anything, Jeanne. It is a very fine but quite basic recipe. If
you're tempted, you could sneak in a little lemon zest for a lemon pie . .
.
etc. If I'm baking a 'wet' pie such as pecan, I paint the pastry with egg
white and bake it for about 5 minutes before I add the filling. That's
sort
of like a coat of shellac but tastes better. Polly


"J*" wrote...
Polly,
what fillings does this recipe work with?
j.

"Polly Esther" ...
Cream Cheese Pastry for beginners
1 'softened' 8oz pkg cream cheese
1 cup margarine ( that's 2 sticks) (also softened)
2 cups flour
½ teaspoon salt

Mix cream cheese and margarine until well blended. Add flour and salt;
mix well. Form into a ball, chill.
Divide dough in half. Lightly flour a sheet of plastic wrap. Place half
of the dough on plastic, lightly flour and cover with another sheet of
plastic wrap. Gently, gently roll out into a circle.
Place in pie pan. Trim, flute, prick. Repeat with other half. Bake at
450° about 12 minutes or proceed with another method. The plastic wrap
is
really not necessary for experienced pastry chefs but surely is helpful
for those of us who don't bake pies very often. Polly

Of course you can! Here's a trick to lighten up European flour: for
every cup of flour, replace a tablespoon with cornstarch (or potato
starch.) I do this with nearly everything I bake that needs to be
light and crispy.
The main issue with hard pastry is too much water and/or too much
handling. Polly's is pretty fool-proof because it uses no water. And
you can solve the handling issue by mixing it in a food processor. Use
the butter and cream cheese right out of the fridge. Takes about 30
seconds!
Roberta in D

On Mon, 21 Nov 2011 17:48:41 +0000, Pat S
wrote:

Do you think it is just possible, therefore, that I might be able to
*make* pastry? I have been *buying* it ready-made for many years ...
... because you could pave a garden patio with mine g (sad but true -
I once made 'fool-proof' bread rolls from a packet mix that were so hard
my DH had to drill holes to hang them out for the birds - and they
ignored them gg).
.
In message , Sandy
writes

Polly, I also have a cream cheese pastry recipe, and if yours is
anything like mine, it's heavenly!

How smart you are, Roberta. I've never attempting cooking with flour across
the pond. There is quite a lot of difference in what we think of as just
plain flour; especially here on the Gulf Coast where our flour is thought of
as 'soft'. When we camped in the mountains, I had quite a time of it just
adjusting to having a real altitude. Polly

"Roberta" Roberta@Home wrote in message
...
Of course you can! Here's a trick to lighten up European flour: for
every cup of flour, replace a tablespoon with cornstarch (or potato
starch.) I do this with nearly everything I bake that needs to be
light and crispy.
The main issue with hard pastry is too much water and/or too much
handling. Polly's is pretty fool-proof because it uses no water. And
you can solve the handling issue by mixing it in a food processor. Use
the butter and cream cheese right out of the fridge. Takes about 30
seconds!
Roberta in D

On Mon, 21 Nov 2011 17:48:41 +0000, Pat S
wrote:

Do you think it is just possible, therefore, that I might be able to
*make* pastry? I have been *buying* it ready-made for many years ...
... because you could pave a garden patio with mine g (sad but true -
I once made 'fool-proof' bread rolls from a packet mix that were so hard
my DH had to drill holes to hang them out for the birds - and they
ignored them gg).
.
In message , Sandy
writes

Polly, I also have a cream cheese pastry recipe, and if yours is
anything like mine, it's heavenly!

This looks like instructions for making a cooked pie shell that you
fill later with fruit. Does also it work for a 2 layer crust as well?
The kind where the 2 layers of crust are cooked at hte same time as the
filling. I'm thinking apple pie (the favorite in my house). A
different crust would make for an interesting variation.

Allison

On 21/11/2011 1:57 PM, Polly Esther wrote:
Cream Cheese Pastry for beginners

1 'softened' 8oz pkg cream cheese
1 cup margarine ( that's 2 sticks) (also softened)
2 cups flour
½ teaspoon salt

Mix cream cheese and margarine until well blended. Add flour and salt;
mix well. Form into a ball, chill.
Divide dough in half. Lightly flour a sheet of plastic wrap. Place half
of the dough on plastic, lightly flour and cover with another sheet of
plastic wrap. Gently, gently roll out into a circle.
Place in pie pan. Trim, flute, prick. Repeat with other half. Bake at
450° about 12 minutes or proceed with another method. The plastic wrap
is really not necessary for experienced pastry chefs but surely is
helpful for those of us who don't bake pies very often. Polly



"Taria" wrote in message
...
DH says is doesn't sound like they eat too healthy there in the swamp.
Paula Deen would be at home there and I could probably be really
happy there too. So I'll ask for your pastry recipe. I just use a basic
one. I don't do many pies here any more but occasionally I just need
one.
Taria

"Polly Esther" wrote in message ...

I was So hoping that you were going to ask for a grand pastry recipe. I
have one that never fails even a beginner and uses cream cheese. No
matter.
I enjoyed your tale so much. Don't get to do that much here in the Swamp.
I can't seem to get them to try anything that doesn't begin with a
stick of
butter and 1/2 cup bacon fat. Polly

I remember when I was first trying to make pastry. The recipe said not
to handle the dough too much. So I got all the ingredients ready and
then threw them together as fast as I could.....which was my way of not
handling the dough too much. There was flour all over the kitchen but
the crust was edible! LOL
Allison

On 21/11/2011 12:48 PM, Pat S wrote:
Do you think it is just possible, therefore, that I might be able to
*make* pastry? I have been *buying* it ready-made for many years ... ...
because you could pave a garden patio with mine g (sad but true - I
once made 'fool-proof' bread rolls from a packet mix that were so hard
my DH had to drill holes to hang them out for the birds - and they
ignored them gg).
.
In message , Sandy
writes

Polly, I also have a cream cheese pastry recipe, and if yours is
anything like mine, it's heavenly!

pie crust is one of those things that you just have to do and get a feel for
getting it right. if you are lucky to have someone like a mom to teach you
that helps otherwise there might be some a few that don't turn out so well.
the first pie I served when I was newly married was a lemon soup version.
thankfully good friends can laugh and be kind. after 30 years folks don't
laugh and tease but make requests.
Taria

"AllisonH" wrote in message
om...

I remember when I was first trying to make pastry. The recipe said not
to handle the dough too much. So I got all the ingredients ready and
then threw them together as fast as I could.....which was my way of not
handling the dough too much. There was flour all over the kitchen but
the crust was edible! LOL
Allison

On 21/11/2011 12:48 PM, Pat S wrote:
Do you think it is just possible, therefore, that I might be able to
*make* pastry? I have been *buying* it ready-made for many years ... ...
because you could pave a garden patio with mine g (sad but true - I
once made 'fool-proof' bread rolls from a packet mix that were so hard
my DH had to drill holes to hang them out for the birds - and they
ignored them gg).
.
In message , Sandy
writes

Polly, I also have a cream cheese pastry recipe, and if yours is
anything like mine, it's heavenly!

Thanks Roberta. I can quite think that it would be both too much water
and too much handling that have been my problem. If it won't mix, slosh
some more water in. I now have a food processor, so I could try with
this new recipe. I presume the flour is what we call 'plain flour'
rather than self-raising'? I can't remember what American flour names
are, at the moment!

I like the sound of 30 seconds, rather than a whole morning or afternoon
- major undertaking anyway g

The supermarket only had a couple of packets of my preferred ready-made
pastry. Perhaps it was a sign!!
..
In message , Roberta
writes
Of course you can! Here's a trick to lighten up European flour: for
every cup of flour, replace a tablespoon with cornstarch (or potato
starch.) I do this with nearly everything I bake that needs to be
light and crispy.
The main issue with hard pastry is too much water and/or too much
handling. Polly's is pretty fool-proof because it uses no water. And
you can solve the handling issue by mixing it in a food processor. Use
the butter and cream cheese right out of the fridge. Takes about 30
seconds!
Roberta in D

--
Best Regards
Pat on the Green

Oh, I get flour all over the kitchen, in my hair and all over my clothes
- but it is still inedible!! However, perhaps for not much longer ....?
..
In message , AllisonH
writes
I remember when I was first trying to make pastry. The recipe said not
to handle the dough too much. So I got all the ingredients ready and
then threw them together as fast as I could.....which was my way of not
handling the dough too much. There was flour all over the kitchen but
the crust was edible! LOL
Allison

--
Best Regards
Pat on the Green