combining them.
Flour Most cookies are made with pastry or
all-purpose flour, but both bread flour and
cake flour produce doughs and batters that
spread less (thanks respectively to more
gluten and more absorbant starch). A high
proportion of flour to water, as in shortbread
and pastry-dough cookies, limits both gluten
development and starch gelation — as little as
20% of the starch in some dry cookies is
gelated — and produces a crumbly texture. A
high proportion of water to flour, as in batter-
based cookies, dilutes gluten proteins, allows
extensive starch gelation, and produces either
a soft, cakelike texture or a crisp, crunchy
one, depending on the method and how much
moisture is baked out of the cookie. For
doughs that need to hold their shape during
baking — those rolled out and stamped with a
cookie cutter — a high flour content and some
gluten development are necessary. The baker