The Biscuits

May 19th, 2022

by Iain Davidson of Baker Pacific Ltd

What are different types of biscuits? Biscuits broadly fall into four categories, distinguished by their recipes and biscuit baking process: crackers, hard sweet biscuits, short dough biscuits, cookies (including filled cookies). Each category and each product type requires a particular baking process: heat transfer method, temperature profile and humidity control.

Crackers

A wide range of products characterised by crispy, open texture and savoury flavours. Snack crackers include soda and saltine crackers, cream crackers, snack crackers, water biscuits, puff biscuits, maltkist (sugar topped cracker), “TUC” type, “Ritz” type, vegetable crackers.

In general crackers may have some of the following features which influence the baking process:

doughs which are leavened and fermented with ingredients such as yeast, ammonia and sodium bicarbonate
doughs generally have a high water content (15 – 25%)
cracker doughs are laminated, (the dough sheet is made up from multiple thin layers)
cracker doughs spring or lift in the first part of the oven to achieve the open, flaky texture. This requires humidity and high heat input.
some crackers are baked in strips or complete sheets and broken into individual products after baking
some crackers require a colour contrast between dark blisters and a pale background colour
traditional English crackers such as cream crackers and water biscuits are normally baked on light wire-mesh bands
traditional American crackers, such as soda or saltine are baked on heavy mesh oven bands which are pre-heated to transfer heat rapidly by conduction into the dough pieces crackers are baked to low moisture contents (1.5% – 2.5%), which requires a high energy input

Production machines for a Snack Cracker:

Mixing
Horizontal 2 speed (30/60rpm) or variable speed mixer
75KW motor

Forming
Vertical laminator
3 pairs of gauge rolls
Relaxation conveyor
Rotary cutter (single roll or two roll system)

Baking
Direct gas Fired Oven
Z47 wire-mesh band
Pre-heat
Average oven burner rating 28KW/m²
Baking temperatures: 220 / 220 / 220 /180 degrees C
Baking time: 5.0 minutes

Oil spray

Cooling
Cooling to baking ratio 1.5 : 1

Hard sweet biscuits

Examples of hard sweet biscuits are Marie, Petit Buerre, Rich Tea, Arrowroot, Gem, Morning Coffee. They are characterised by an even, attractive colour and texture and good volume. Doughs for hard sweet biscuits have the following features:

doughs have strong, developed gluten which gives an elastic dough, which often shrinks in the first stage of baking
doughs have low sugar and fat
doughs have water contents typically of around 12%
biscuits are normally baked on a wire-mesh band (except for Marie which is traditionally baked on a steel band)
humidity in the first part of the baking is important to achieve good volume and a smooth surface sheen
biscuits are baked to low moisture contents, around 1.5% – 3.0%

Production machines for hard sweet biscuits:

Mixing
Horizontal 2 speed (30/60rpm) or variable speed mixer
75KW motor
Good temperature monitoring of the dough
Accurate temperature controller

Forming
3 roll sheeter with good scrap incorporation (separate hopper and feed roll)
3 pairs of gauge rolls (final rolls 400mm diam.)
Relaxation conveyor
Rotary cutter (two roll system)

Baking
Direct gas fired oven / convection oven
Steel band
Average oven burner rating required: 22KW/m²
Baking temperatures: 200 / 220 / 220 /180 degrees C
Baking time: 5.0 – 6.5 minutes

Short doughs (moulded biscuits)

This is another wide category with many designs. The doughs are short with higher fat and sugar contents than the crackers and hard sweet biscuits. This is the simplest category for the dough piece forming process (rotary moulding) and so these products are very widely produced, often in very high volumes. The list of typical products could be very extensive and contains many local or regional specialities:

Malted milk, Glucose, Lincoln, Digestive, Nice, Shortbread, Custard Cream from Britain, Italian frollini, Dutch speculaas, caramelised biscuits, German lebkuchen...

doughs have a low water content, but more fat and sugar than the hard biscuits
high humidity in the first part of the baking process to allow the biscuit structure to form
relatively slow baking at comparatively low temperatures

Production machines for moulded short dough biscuits:

Mixing
Horizontal 2 speed (30/60rpm) or variable speed mixer
75KW motor
Good temperature monitoring of the dough
Accurate temperature controller

Forming
Rotary moulder
Moulding roll with plastic inserts
Adjustment for forcing roll gap
Radial adjustment of the knife position
Adjustment of the rubber covered pressure roll
Speed control for moulding roll and extraction web

Baking
Direct gas fired oven / convection oven
Z 47 wire-mesh band
Average oven burner rating required: 20KW/m²
Baking temperatures: 180 – 220 C
Baking time: 4.0 – 5.5 minutes

Cookies

Chocolate chip cookies, butter cookies, two dough cookies, centre filled cookies, fig bars, fruit bars, extruded cookies, cookies with many types of inclusion such as nuts, raisins, coconut, chocolate chips...

very soft doughs which are deposited directly onto the oven band
high fat and sugar recipes
long baking times with relatively low baking temperatures
all products are baked on steel bands
high humidity is required in the first oven zones to allow the dough to spread on the oven band

Production machines for cookies

Mixing: Removable bowl batch mixer

stainless steel construction
bowl lifts and seals
bowl with heavy duty casters
planetary mixing action
air pressure to control specific gravity
variable speed drive with inverter
detachable / interchangeable mixing tools to suit each type of dough, batter or cream

Forming: Wire-cut machine

stainless steel hopper
grooved feed rolls driven continuously
variable speed drive with inverter
adjustable gap between feed rolls
reciprocating wire mechanism
interchangeable die plates carrying die nozzles

Baking
Direct gas fired oven / convection oven
Steel band
Average oven burner rating required: 22KW/m²

Filled cookies and Danish Butter cookies comprise both rotary moulded and deposited / wire cut cookies.

Discover more Biscuit Types in The Complete Collection of Biscuit Types

Visit TechTalks Discussion

Marie biscuit
I'm making marie biscuits. But when I try to increase the amount of sugar in the recipe, it becomes soft and incoherent. Is there a solution to this problem? In the past, I used to add 10 kilos of sugar to 50 kilos of flour. Now I want to add 13 kilos of sugar to 50 kilos of flour.

Garibaldi Biscuit
Thank you for providing a platform for those who are interested in the bakery and biscuit industry to gather and use the information of the professors. We are preparing ourselves to produce Garibaldi biscuits. As you know, in this product raisins or sultanas enter the dough and then the baking process is done. My question is, both technically (cutter mold) and qualitatively, do raisins need to be preheated? Is it necessary for the temperature of raisins to always be within a certain range, or does it matter whether the raisins are hot or cold? Do we have to do anything in advance to prepare the raisins?

Color in almond biscuits
we produce in a small factory almond biscuits known as Biscotti. They are cut after baking. So you see in the biscuits section the almond sliced. After 5-6 months the color of the almond sliced change from white to yellow/green as if it was old, there is no problem in taste only in aspect. We already made an analysis about peroxides but there is no difference between a sample with white almonds and yellow almonds, so it seems to be not a problem of oxidation of fats. The biscuits are packed in a protective atmosphere with nitrogen. Do you have some suggestions to discover the cause?

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