Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
sugar used. Wire-cut and deposited cookies have
high levels of both ingredients, sheeted and
molded cookies have intermediate levels, and
crackers have even lower levels (Manley 2001;
Hazelton et al., 2004). Cookies are generally made
from soft wheat fl our with low protein content
(7%-9%; Faridi et al., 2000), and with moder-
ately weak to weak dough characteristics. Cookies
share a need, along with other products that are
baked to very low fi nished moisture contents, to
have fl our that can make a workable dough with
a relatively low amount of added water. Low-
protein soft wheat fulfi lls this need in the fi rst
instance by reducing to a minimum the water
absorbed by protein and by starch. Low absorp-
tion by starch is achieved through low levels of
starch damage attained by soft wheat upon milling
compared with hard wheat (Martin et al., 2007).
Even within single cultivars cookie quality has
been shown to decline with increased starch
damage deliberately induced through additional
disc milling (Barrera et al., 2007). Furthermore
lower amounts of other hygroscopic components
such as arabinoxylans (pentosans) and proteins
also reduce the overall water requirements of soft
wheat fl our.
Zhang et al. (2007) showed with 17 Chinese
soft-wheat cultivars grown in six site × year envi-
ronments that water-soluble pentosan content
was negatively correlated with cookie diameter.
They also applied a cluster analysis that divided
the cultivars into good, fair, and poor clusters
(good represented by largest cookie diameter and
largest diameter-to-height ratio). This analysis
showed that the good cluster had the lowest
water-soluble pentosan level and lowest water
absorption at statistically equivalent fl our protein
content across the three clusters. Finnie et al.
(2006) evaluated 7 soft white spring and 20 soft
white winter wheat cultivars across 10 or more
site×year environments and concluded that ara-
binoxylan content of grain and fl our was primarily
under genetic control. The authors concluded
that genetic control was more evident for the
important water-soluble arabinoxylans. Slade and
Levine (1994) further attributed low sugar-snap
cookie diameter to the formation of elastic 3-
dimensional polymer networks by one, two, or all
three of the high-polymer fl our components:
high-molecular-weight glutenins, arabinoxylans,
and damaged starch. The variety of styles of
cookies precludes a blanket summary of desired
quality characteristics. However, the develop-
ment and control of cookie spread during baking
is the key to cookie quality.
Like cookies, crackers are also baked to low-
moisture content. Crackers typically have a fl aky
and hard but friable (crisp) texture. To achieve
the required texture, cracker dough is commonly
laminated. According to Faridi et al. (2000)
crackers can be categorized as saltine, chemically
leavened, and savory. Saltine crackers are leav-
ened by fermentation in a sponge-and-dough
process. Flour for crackers tends to be somewhat
higher in optimum protein (8.5%-10.0%; Faridi
et al., 2000) than for cookies and may also
be somewhat higher in dough strength coupled
with good extensibility if optimized solely
for cracker production (Hazelton et al., 2004).
Cracker production also benefi ts from fl our with
low water absorption capacity, ideally milled
from soft wheat. Feedback to the Oregon State
University (OSU) breeding program from indus-
trial participants in the US Pacifi c Northwest
Wheat Quality Council also refl ects the
desire for slightly higher dough strength in soft
wheat cultivars that are specialized for cracker
production.
Cakes and batters
Cakes, pancakes, coatings, waffl es, cake donuts,
and similar products share a common process and
base ingredients. They are produced from high-
water-content batters and made from soft wheat
fl our with varying amounts of other ingredients:
sugar, fat, emulsifi ers, and leavening agents.
Batter-based products rely largely on viscosity to
control baking and end-product characteristics
(Morris and Rose 1996). Batter viscosity needs to
be suffi ciently high to allow for the retention of
leavening gasses, to allow the batter to cling to
products when used as coatings, and to prevent
settling out of batter components. Simultane-
ously, viscosity must be low enough to allow suf-
fi cient fl ow for proper product performance (e.g.,
