No. 302 — General Note on Pastry Dough for Small Pies
Complete English translation of Molokhovets recipe No. 302 from the 1901 Russian cookbook, retaining original quantities, preparation and source.
Small pies may be made with many kinds of dough: puff pastry, short or crumbly pastry, chopped pastry, pancake batter, choux pastry, and yeast dough, both lean (without animal products) and rich. Some pies are baked in the oven, while others are deep-fried on the stove.
The principal dough rules are as follows.
1. For each Russian pound of flour, use one full teaspoon of salt.
2. For lean yeast dough, approximately one Russian pound of flour is needed for each glass of water with yeast. An exact proportion cannot be stated because flour differs in quality and dryness. When butter and eggs are included, use less than one glass of water per pound of flour.
3. For small pies for six to eight diners, 1½ Russian pounds of flour is sufficient and makes approximately eighteen pies.
4. For each Russian pound of flour use two zolotniks of dry yeast. Dissolve the yeast in ¼ glass of water already measured out for the dough, add one teaspoon of flour, stir and allow it to begin fermenting slightly before mixing the dough. The author says that it may then be ready in seven hours.
If the dough must be made quickly, in three or four hours, the original recommends doubling or sometimes tripling the yeast.
The stated basic proportions are for six to eight people. For nine to twelve people multiply everything by 1½; for thirteen to fifteen, by 2; for sixteen to eighteen, by 2½; and for nineteen to twenty-four, by 3.