Biscuit hardness problem
Hello everyone,
I have a problem with hard biscuit production, similar to petit beurre.
We are working on a diesel oven with 3 burners, each has separate temperature control.
upon cooling the biscuit, it becomes extremely hard to bite through, and when it does it tends to break from different spots, not where the teeth are biting.. Let's say like breaking glass, metaphorically speaking !
The color of the biscuit is perfectly fine, it's not burned or anything, just becomes hard when it cools..
is it the sugar? or the suryp?
We did make changes to the recipe, and found some improvements, changes were as follows:
We are using regular white sugar, each batch contains 100 kg flour, we started with 26kg sugar per batch, and adjusted the quantity to 15 kg per batch, it did get better noticeably, but not like the products that we find in the market.
We also use invert sugar, hand-made and not bought, what are the optimal quantities? we are currently adding 5.5 kg per batch.
As for glucose syrup, we tried using it a couple of times.. Didn't see much improvements though and so we stopped..
We also changed more than 8 sources of wheat flour, all gave the same result..
Anyone ever encountered such a problem and knows the reasons behind it?
Thanks in advance! :DIt is much possible that you need to adjust sugar content in recipe. Please notice that, besides quantity, particle size also impacts on texture. In a general way, the smaller the sugar particle, the greater the effect on hard texture and spread.
For this type of biscuit, that I assume that is a laminated, inverted sugar is usually about 4-5% of formulation, total dough basis. Sucrose may be 14 -15%.
Adding too much inverted sugar will impact your color, due to reductor sugar content, and also texture, making it hatder. But in excess, it may give a chewy texture instead, due to its water binding properties.
Check if your ammonium bicarbonate content can be adjusted (0,4 to 0,6%). You could also add emulsifiers like DATEM to you recipe, they tend to fix hard texture.
Also please check if you are not using too much water (more than 17%) or mixing to long or too fast, causing gluten to develop more than necessary. Dough temperature should not be above 42 ºC, usually.
José
Hi Rasha,
For semi sweet hardness the level of fat is extremely important, if the level mis too low the biscuits will be hard and if too high they may be too tender. A level of about 15% on flour weight should give give good results.
I hope this helps
Andrew Hughes
Hi Rasha;
for petit beurre.. to solve hardness problem
u can send your recipe to me.. I can advive new recipe balancing for u..
* sugar and syrup balance is so important.
* SMS and enzyme usage is important, mixing parameters time and temperatures..
* water amount, softness elasticity of dough
* fat content and origin quality
* dough standing time, relaxing sheeting, lamination parameters...
* and oven profile... baking temp and time.
all best..
beyhan
Dear Rasha,
You need to keep the sugar powder (lawn sugar) at 26-28kgs and invert syrup at 2kgs-3kgs and palm oil or any fat at 13-15kgs as per your requirement. You need to add SMBS (sodium meta bisulphite) if your country allows you to use at particular PPM please add the same along with Neutraze enzyme at 0.04kgs. All quantities given for 100kgs of wheat flour. Other ingredients as per your taste preference and cost. But these are all very important. When you use enzyme please be careful on standing time and set the line accordingly. you will get crisp Petite beurre.
keep laminated sheets minimum 7sheets before it is enter into IGR.
Dear Rasha,
To really solve your problem, I should know what is your ingredients exactly. Also the amount of your Ingredients is important as well. How do you mix that? Time? Temperature? Equipment?
Also from Basis till end of your production should be control and new recipe should be also analysis to get the best Results and great Quality as well.
Best regards,
Parisa Mohammadshahi
Hi Rasha
Good advice already given.
Only thing I would add is that the percentage of fat in the recipe may be too low. If you have also noticed an increase in stack height then that would further suggest that there’s to little fat in the recipe. Either way an increase in fat combined with a reduction in water level will give a noticeably softer texture.
I’d suggest something along the lines of 3kg additional fat with a 2kg reduction in water on a 600kg batch size should be sufficient but you may need to experiment a little based on results.
Good luck
John
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