May's New and Improved Gratin Instructions

This recipe is the result of several of several experiments that are still on-going. I will update this as I go along. 

Ingredients
Potatoes, sliced thinly -- weighed after peeling and slicing
salt

Place sliced potatoes in a pot. Cover with water, add salt, and bring to a boil. Turn off the heat, and drain potatoes right away, reserving the water.

Make white sauce as per your normal recipe, starting with the milk and then following up with the reserved potato water. 

Make gratin as per usual.

Notes: 

I used water only this time, as it was an experiment. If you usually make a 100% milk white sauce, you can use the milk portion of the recipe to cook the potatoes.

There will be starch in the water, and it will thicken up more than you think. Of course, the starchier the potato that you use, the thicker it will get. So you may want to reduce the amount of flour you use in the sauce.

Most recipes that have you boil the potatoes have you cook them for much longer, until the potatoes are almost cooked through. Even worse, they may have you cook them whole and then slice or cut them. I find that doing it that way makes it difficult to get the potatoes into the pan easily. The potatoes may be slightly sticky to handle this way, but they are almost as solid as raw.

This method also allows you to preserve more flavor, as the potato water goes back into the sauce.

It is important to drain the potatoes right away, especially if they were sliced thinly. Once the slices are cooked through, they are a pain to position in the gratin pan, and letting them sit in the water is potentially enough to cook them all the way.

I also find that there is much less slumping when cooking a gratin this way, so if you do not want a short gratin, this is an excellent way to do it.

Flaky Lard Dough

This pastry is very similar to my pie dough. Mainly, I have adjusted the water and flour proportions to reflect that the same weight of lard as butter has much less water. 

Ingredients: 
400g all-purpose flour 
250g lard 
3/4 cup ice water 
1tsp salt 

Cut up lard into a dozen pieces or so, and stick in the freezer. 

Put lard, flour and salt into food processor and pulse until pea-sized. Check that the pieces of lard can be squished with your fingers easily. If not, wait 5 minutes. 

Add water, and processor until the dough comes together in one large blob. 

Hand knead for about 1 minute, and cut into the sizes that you need. Knead each piece into a smooth ball without cracks, wrap and chill for at least half an hour. 

Notes: 

The lard dough comes together more nicely than the butter version does. I recommend this one over the butter pastry, as it is easier to control. 

This recipe is just nice to cover top and bottom crust on a quarter-sheet pan. 

I did not add sugar, but you can add up to 50g, depending on your requirements. I would add it in with the flour in the first step. 

It does not puff as much as the all-butter pastry, which is a lifesaver if, like me, you always forget to prick.  

Pie Dough

350g all-purpose flour
250g butter
1/2 cup ice water
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp sugar -- optional

Cut up the butter into about 12 pieces. Stick in the freezer for an hour or so.

Dump half the flour and the sugar and salt into the food processor. Scatter the butter chunks and the rest of the flour in.

Pulse until the butter pieces are pea-sized. Make sure there are no more very large chunks of butter that are frozen solid. If there are, wait 5 minutes, and pulse again.

Pour the water, and pulse again. The dough should feel cold to touch (even in tropical Singapore) and moist, almost wet, but still very crumbly. Turn out onto your work surface.

Hand knead the dough for about 2 minutes. It is ready when you are able to form a fairly smooth ball of dough, with very minimal cracks.

Roll into a square or round block, depending on your intended use, and chill for at least half an hour before you roll it out.

Make sure to prick the pie dough before baking, as it will puff up otherwise.


Notes: 

You can use frozen butter from the freezer just fine. It is just much harder to hack up.

Do use European-style high-fat butter. I personally don't use any other kind for baking.

If you are making something savory, I would increase the salt a little.

I do really mean ice water. I put a cup with some ice cubes and water into the freezer while I weigh the flour and things.

This dough has a relatively high flour and water to butter ratio. It makes it easier to roll.

You do have to knead the dough. Too light a hand will make a dough that is difficult to roll, does not transfer to a pie tin well, and may break in the oven.

For a more buttery pastry, reduce the flour by 50g.