Gluten formation in short pastry is not normally considered necessary. Traditional multistage methods of dough mixing were evolves to try minimize the potential for gluten formation required in the manufacture of pastry the paste units or sheets remain intact during the forming and sheeting processes otherwise crack may form on the surface of the pastry. In extreme case the crack may extend through the pastry sheet, cousing it to break into two separate pieces.
Too much gluten formation in short pastry commonly leads to problems associated with shrinkage during sheeting, blocking, forming and during baking. Getting the balance between too little–lack of cohesion–and too much–excessive shrinkage–requires careful control of recipe and mixing conditions.
As might be expected the level of water used in the recipe plays a major role in determining the rheological properties of the final paste (Cauvain and Young, 2000). Too little and the paste will not form a cohesive sheet, too mush and the on paste firmness: more fat inhibiting gluten formation and water promoting it.
Taylor (1984) studied the effect of mixing method for the manufacture of puff pastry and found that the mixing method used. Short pastes mixing on a high-speed mixing time tended to be more friable and prone to cracking because of the short mixing times employed. These findings confirm the need to develop a limited degree of gluten in the paste in order to minimize cracking of the sheets.
We suggest that you first investigate the effects of increasing mixing time. You may notice a small increase in paste temperature which can be readily compensated for by lowering the water temperature. If you still have the problem when you have optimized mixing time then we suggest you raising the added water level.
