Determining Gluten Requirements

It is tempting to generalize and say that, for bread, the more gluten the better, and for pastries, the less gluten the better. But this is oversimplifying the matter. Different types of bread have different gluten requirements (Figure 7.3). Even when gluten requirements are high, bread dough can have too much strong gluten. Breads with too much gluten tend to be tough and chewy, have low volume because they cannot stretch, and develop soft and thin crusts. Just as bread can have too much gluten, pastries can have too little. Pie crusts with too little gluten break and crumble easily, cakes collapse, and baking powder biscuits slump.