William Woys Weaver

My Paste Royal

1990

Preparation info
  • Yield: Sufficient for

    One 9 inch

    Pie with Top Crust.
    • Difficulty

      Medium

Appears in
The Christmas Cook: Three Centuries of American Yuletide Sweets
The Christmas Cook

By William Woys Weaver

Published 1990

  • About

This is a family recipe that I use whenever I need to make up a batch of pies quickly. It gives a very delicate crust and works especially well for tartlet shells.

Ingredients

  • 2⅔ cups pastry flour
  • 8 tablespoons (1 stick) cold unsalted butter

Method

Put the flour in a large sieve. Cut the butter into bits and scatter over the flour. Add the shortening. Rub this to a soft, fluffy crumb through the sieve. Beat the yolk and the wine together. Make a hole in the center of the crumbs and add the egg mixture. Taking a large wooden fork, stir the crumbs and the liquid until balls of dough roughly the size of lima beans form. Do not touch the doug