Shortening, Pastery Dough and Gluten?
What is the roll of lard or butter in a pastery dough with the dough gets stretched out paper thin like strudel?
I am trying to make a similar dough for an Italian pastery that has to be streched literally paper thin. I am using breadflour for a higher gluten content. I undersand this is not typical for flaky pastery, however, since its being streched so thin you need good gluten development.
I thought things like butter and shortnening coat flour there by reducing gluten. So I dont understand why 20 of the versions of this dough have some sort of fat worked in, while the only one that worked for me so far was leaving fat out all together.
The reason I ask is that when I fallow the most common form of the dough recipe, I end up with a solid shell instead of distinct seprate flaky layers. When I fallow the odd ball versions with no fat, it works like its supposed to.
Here is the recipe, I am trying to make Sfogliatelle
3 Cups of bread flour
1 cup of lard or butter
2/3 cups water
1 tsp salt
2 Tbsp honey
And what they should look like:
Not like this: