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The
principle of Shortening applies to sweet short pastry.
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| Shortening is to coat the sub proteins within the flour to prevent the development of gluten, which can toughen the paste making it unpleasant to eat and difficult to digest. Shortbread has one of the shortest textures and melts in the mouth usually made with butter. |
| To
make a good eating light short
pastry the gluten strands that
are formed should be short and
easily break when eaten. This
is achieved by coating the two
sub proteins that when mixed
with liquid form together to
make the insoluble protein GLUTEN.
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| In the dough unit we wished to develop the gluten to form long elastic strands of gluten to hold in the expanding gases, with short pastry we wish to do the exact opposite. |
| This is achieved by the ratio of FAT to FLOUR, the standard ratio is 50% fat to 100% flour, which should be soft ie. one with a low protein content (soft plain flour). As the ratio of fat is increased in the recipe, the pastry has a shorter texture. |
