Pastry

Pastry is the art of controlling fat to control gluten. Where bread maximizes gluten development for airy structure, pastry uses fat to weaken, interrupt, or separate gluten — producing textures from crumbly to flaky to layered. The word “shortening” literally means making dough “short” (tender, crumbly) by preventing long gluten networks from forming. Every pastry type is a variation on how fat is distributed through flour.

The shortening mechanism

Fat and oil molecules bond to hydrophobic portions of gluten protein coils, preventing those proteins from linking into long, elastic chains. The result: weaker gluten, tenderer product. How the fat is distributed determines the pastry type: