Thankfully, corporate pastry chef at JF Restaurants ... According to Schlieben, "The main reasons pie crust can turn out tough are using less butter than the recipe calls for, taking too long ...

Gluten is good in puff pastry as these sheets develop into flaky layers, less so for a crumbly shortcrust where it becomes tough. The fat in the butter basically ‘coats’ the flour and stops ...

Handling shortcrust pastry too much or adding too much water creates unwanted gluten that can lead to tough pastry. However, in puff pastry, we do need to create enough gluten in the dough so that ...