Flour

The flour you use determines the texture of your crust. American all-purpose flour contains a relatively large amount of gluten or, more accurately, two proteins that combine to form gluten when the dough is moistened and worked. Gluten is elastic when wet and causes pastry crusts to shrink and harden when baked. The best way to avoid too much gluten is to use a low-gluten flour. Most of the recipes given here use a combination of cake flour, which contains too little gluten, and all-purpose flour, which contains too much. Don’t try making pastry dough with cake flour alone—it needs some gluten to hold it together.