Well, if I'm not mistaken, a rest period does these three things:
1) Further enhances gluten development. As the dough sits there, the proteins in the flour continue to hydrate and form gluten, which knits together into a nice little web. Often this is referred to as an autolyze phase, although normally an autolyze involves only water and salt (though, IMHO, that definition is overly restrictive :).
2) Gives time for the gluten structure to relax. This simply makes the dough more extensible, which means it's much easier to manipulate and shape (my tortilla recipe uses a rest period in order to make the dough easier to roll out).
3) Provides time for enzymes in the flour to break out starches into sugars.
'course, whether or not a long rest makes sense in your case depends entirely on the recipe. My suggestion: experiment. Try shortening the rest period in order to see what effect it has. It may be that you can get away with a much shorter rest, or that a longer one improves the result... but you won't know until you try. :)
Well, if I'm not mistaken, a rest period does these three things:
1) Further enhances gluten development. As the dough sits there, the proteins in the flour continue to hydrate and form gluten, which knits together into a nice little web. Often this is referred to as an autolyze phase, although normally an autolyze involves only water and salt (though, IMHO, that definition is overly restrictive :).
2) Gives time for the gluten structure to relax. This simply makes the dough more extensible, which means it's much easier to manipulate and shape (my tortilla recipe uses a rest period in order to make the dough easier to roll out).
3) Provides time for enzymes in the flour to break out starches into sugars.
'course, whether or not a long rest makes sense in your case depends entirely on the recipe. My suggestion: experiment. Try shortening the rest period in order to see what effect it has. It may be that you can get away with a much shorter rest, or that a longer one improves the result... but you won't know until you try. :)