the.com/shortcrust
Flour and fat on purpose, kneaded as little as humanly possible.
means A crumbly, tender pastry made by cutting cold fat into flour so the baked result shatters rather than chews.
from Straightforward compound English: 'short' plus 'crust.' The culinary sense of 'short' — meaning crumbly, easily broken — dates back centuries and likely ties to the same root as 'short' meaning 'brief, lacking length': a short dough lacks the long, stretchy gluten strands that make bread chewy, because the fat coats the flour and shortens those strands before they can form. So 'shortcrust' simply names what it is: a crust made short on purpose.
- the rule
- cold butter, warm hands ruin it instantly
- short means
- fat coats flour, blocking gluten strands
- ratio
- roughly half fat to flour by weight
- blind baking
- exists because soggy bottoms are unforgivable