Bring together

"Bring together" means gently press loose, crumbly ingredients into a single ball or disc of dough. Recipes use it for pastry, scones, shortbread and cookie doughs, after the fat has been worked into the flour and the liquid has gone in. The aim is a dough that holds together, with as little kneading as possible.

How to do it

1. After you rub in or cut in the fat, sprinkle the liquid over the mix a spoonful at a time.
2. Stir with a fork or a table knife after each addition.
3. Grab a handful and squeeze. If it holds and does not crumble apart, stop adding liquid.
4. Tip the shaggy mix onto the counter.
5. Press and gather it with your hands or a bench scraper into a mound.
6. Flatten it into a disc about 2 to 3 cm (1 inch) thick. Wrap and chill it.

How to tell it is done

The dough holds one shape when you press it. It may look a bit rough or marbled with butter, and the edges may crack slightly. That is fine. There should be no loose dry flour in the bowl and no wet, sticky patches.

Why it works

Pastry and shortbread need only enough liquid to hold the flour together. Each extra press or knead builds gluten, which makes the dough tough and causes it to shrink in the oven. Bringing it together with a few presses keeps it tender. The dough also gets more even as it rests, because the water spreads through the flour.

Common mistakes

• Kneading until smooth. That is right for bread, but pastry turns hard.
• Adding too much water because it looks dry. Do the squeeze test instead.
• Warm hands. They melt the butter. Use a bench scraper or work quickly.
• Dumping all the liquid in at once. Some flours need less than the recipe says.

In recipes

"Mix until the dough just comes together" and "bring together into a ball" both mean stop as soon as it holds. In cake recipes the similar phrase is "just combined". For shortcrust pastry, this is the step before chilling and rolling.