A rare recipe for pastry dough from the 17th century

This one of the rare recipes for dough in old cookery books. Cooks knew how to prepare dough, so it was not considered necessary to provide recipes. In the cookbook from Lancelot de Casteau, dating from 1604, is a recipe for a kind of puff pastry. It is part of the recipe for ‘tourtes de blancmanger’, where the crust is filled with sweet almond milk thickened with rice flour.

The original recipe

From the Ouverture de cuisine from Lancelot de Casteau. In 1983 a facsimile edition was published, and the text can also be read online. This recipe is excellent in combination with the mushroom pie from the same cookbook.

… & faictes de la paste de fine farine auec des oeufs & du beurre, vn peu d’eau, &que la paste ne soit pas dure, puis battez bien la paste vn quart d’heure, puis faites des couuertures bien tennes & delies, & mettez deux l’vne sur l’autre, qu’il soit frotté de beurre fondu entre deux, puis mettez ces deux couuertes en vne tortiere …

… Maak deeg van fijn meel met eieren en boter, een beetje water, en [zorg] dat het deeg niet te stevig is. Kneed het deeg vervolgens goed gedurende een kwartier, en maak dan heel dunne en grote deeglappen en leg de ene op de andere, en er moet gesmolten botertussen beide worden gestreken, en leg de twee deeglappen dan in een taartvorm …

Modern adaptation of the recipe

250 gr (2 cups) flour
1 egg
1 tsp salt
3 Tbsp soft butter
¾ dl (5 Tbsp) water
another 2 Tbso melted butter

Preparation in advance

Combine flour with salt. Melt the butter in a microwave or small pan. The butter must not turn colour. Stir the melted butter with water and egg. Knead with the flour to a supple, elastic dough. Cover with plastic foil or a towel and let rest for half an hour (not in the refrigerator).

Preparation

Divide the dough into two portions. Roll each of them out to a thin sheet. Spread melted butter on one dough sheet, cover with the other sheet. Roll out together if necessary (depends on the thickness you want), and dress a pie mould or springform with it.

Bibliography

The editions below were used by me. Links refer to available editions.

Lancelot de Casteau, Ouverture de cuisine (1604, facsimile editie Herman Liebaers, Léo Moulin, Jacques Kother, Antwerpen/Brussel, 1983), tekst online.