Resting dough: the pause that does the work

How to tell it is going right

• It actually rested, covered, for the time stated, not cut short because the rest of the schedule was tight.
• It rolls and shapes without fighting: it stays where it is put, and it does not spring back or shrink on the bench between passes.
• The surface is smooth and supple rather than dry, cracked, or skinned over.
• It is at the temperature the next step needs: cold where the fat must stay solid, cool and relaxed where it must be rolled thin.
• Baked, it holds the dimensions it was shaped to rather than shrinking back from the edges of the tin or the rim of the dish.

Where it goes wrong The rest was skipped or shortened, so the gluten was still tight: the dough fought the pin and sprang back thick and uneven, then shrank down the sides of the tin in the oven.