"Dick Adams" > wrote in message
...

"Tom Stanton" > wrote in message
...

> All so-called "pastry" flours (or pastry wheat anything) are soft by
> definition.

> Oh, I see. But are they long or short?

I'm not sure what you mean by long or short? If you mean long or short in
terms of gluten strands, that doesn't seem to be the right word to use. The
length of a strand of gluten is usually only limited by the amount of fat in
a dough - that is, fat inhibits the lengthening of gluten strands (hence the
term shortening). Wheats which have designed for pastries and cakes will
create gluten strands just as long as other doughs, they simply have lower
protein contents. Therefore the gluten will not be as strong. Softer flours
create more delicate doughs which flake and crumble; these doughs are
designed to avoid the high protein chewiness that we (I) so value in a good
lean dough

Tom