Hello,

I would like to make pastry but will have to make a few 'twists' in the recipe.

I am unable to have modern wheat but can have spelt and khorasan. I am also unable to have butter, butter substitutes or margarine, but can have Ghee (clarified butter).

Anyway I was thinking of making the pastry for pies and vegetable triangles using spelt flour and was wondering whether I could substitute ghee instead of butter in the recipe?

If so do I substitute 1:1 or how much?

Has anyone tried making pastry using ghee and what were your experiences?

The other alternative is just using olive oil but not sure that this would even work??

Thanks.

Apple-Cherry Pie

Ready to Bake

Forgive my slight detour to pies here. I figure it has pastry on the top and bottom so it must be close to on topic!

This is something I have been wanting to do for a while and finally had everything in place at the right time. The pie is a combination of apple and cherry pie filling. I used about 1/3 of the normal sugar because of the cherry filling and it's very nice, not to sweet. The top is really the experiment. I have been pondering puff pastry recently and Palmiers and got the idea that if I rolled sugar in both sides of the pastry and cut it in strips, I could get my daughter to braid the top.

She did a great job with the braiding and the pies look terrific to me. More holiday fun!

Hope you are all having fun in the kitchen tonight. I also have the 3rd 4 loaf batch of WW-raisin with cinnamon about to come out. I'm gifting those to friends and family with a little holiday note. I still can't quite get them to look as nice as Floyds. Darn that guy is good!

Eric

WOW! Made my first hand-milled loaf... and my arm'd tired but we are HOOKED on the taste!!!

Well, always looking for a challenge, I'm now wondering if I dare work hand-milled into the family THanksgiving I'm hosting (I know, nothing like last minute planning). I'll be doing French bread with the appetizer, which I usually make with KA all-purpose flour... anyone made French bread with hand-milled? Should I use hard white wheat? Would it make more sense to mix hand-milled with store-bought?

And I'd like to try at least one of the pie crusts with hand-milled - I assume I need soft wheat for that? Any special challenges I should look out for?

Any tips appreciated!

Amy