Understanding Short Pastry

Short pastry describes pastry with tender, crumbly texture achieved through high fat-to-flour ratio. The term short comes from the culinary meaning of shortening - fat that interrupts gluten development, creating tender rather than elastic texture. When Paul Hollywood critiqued George's pastry as too short, he meant it was overly crumbly and fragile - it broke apart too easily and couldn't hold the filling well or maintain structural integrity when handled. This happens when the ratio of butter to flour is too high, when pastry is overworked causing butter to fully coat flour and prevent any gluten formation, or when there's insufficient binding agent. The solution is adding egg yolk, which provides binding strength through its proteins and emulsifying properties while maintaining the tender, delicious texture that makes short pastry desirable. Egg yolk creates a pastry that's tender enough to melt in the mouth but strong enough to hold together for serving and eating. The goal is finding the sweet spot between too short (crumbly, fragile) and not short enough (tough, leathery) - a pastry that's tender and flaky but structurally sound.