First time doing crackers I have some problems
Hello experts, exited to have peolple who can help me! I am trying to make very thin crackers something like italian Sfoglie, with diferent toppings to flavor. The dough is made with flour, potatoe flakes and potatoe starch, with water and oil. I use amonium bicarbonate as chemical leaven.
When we prepare the dough it is beautiful and soft.
The dough we make has yeast and we leave it to ferment for 16 to 18 hours.
After fermentation, we add the amonium bicarbonate and the dough gets very humid and we must add more flour to dry it, if the dough isn´t very dry it is very hard to laminate as thin as we need, but it is very hard to form a ball because it must be so dry that it falls apart in pieces that once we put on the laminator we must be able to form a dough and star laminating and folding for 3 times, then we reduce the thickness to 0 we must pass it for three time until it reaches the correct thickness, but it is very frustrating and time consuming because it breaks very easy and we have to start all over again. We try to give the dough time to rest and we keep it warm and in a humid container hoping it will be more pliable.
Is the kneading time and rph very important? what would the ideal time?, and at what rph would you suggest please? My equipment are small, more like bakery style than industry, I have a kneader, a laminator and a rotative oven.
After the dough is laminated we cut it by hand like if it was pasta, we put a water spary, sprinkle salt and then season them with infused oils, but I am not getting enough flavors, any suggestions of better seasonings? I really think I have to buy machinery but ise very expensive for now.
I bake the crackers al 250 C for 4 min, they don,t cook even because the oven isn´t the ideal, so I have to take out all the ones that overcooked. Any suggestions?
Some of the crackers come out good, some others are curved and some other come out cracked! so it is very frustrating and difficult to have a standard recipe to follow! Why is this happening?
I would love to have some shine on top after baking, can I add a slurry or should I add oil after baking?
Thank you so much I know I made a lot of questions, hope you can help me!!
Really appreciate!!
Diana
Dear Diana,
Indeed a lot of questions, you've given us a lot of information, but still many is missing. Have you considered using enzymes?
Feel free to contact me or one of the other consultants here directly so we could start a project for this improvement.
Dear Diana
Instead of Yeast you can use Enzymes which will make your dough flexible and easy to handle. but you have to use combination of enzymes so that you are able to process. Novazyme has lot of enzymes for this purpose. You can write to them and ask
Dear Diana,
in that case our enzyme technology can offer a solution. I would be pleased to help with our experience. let me know.
Regards
Thomas
Dear Diana,
The Dough Temperature post mixing should be controlled in relation to the rheology which is obtained. The latter is controlled by the kneading time which you are referring to. The Fermentation conditions in relation to Yeast content, of the dough batches should be also monitored since you are applying a long fermentation process.
I may also confirm from my side that a combination of enzymes would be delivering a better result.
Regarding the seasonings and their intensity if you are applying those before baking having been dissolved in oil, then it would be a matter of bake stability of those. Most of oil soluble flavors are having a better performance after baking.
Kind Regards,
Christos Sevastos,
Bakery & Food Consultant,
Sevastos Bakery & Food
Dear Diana
First of all, be sure that you are using a proper flour. Use some diluted sodium metabisulphite (atention to regulatory limits). Be sure that your mixer jacket is not too hot. Try mixing the first dough until it reaches 41 - 42ºC (depends on your flour development profile, use at least partial fast mixing speed to achieve this). Assure that your fermentation chamber can deliver required temperature and %RH. Allow dough to rest for some hours in fermentation chamber after adding more flour and mixing it with vertical mixer. If all this fails, consider using a proper enzyme, if you haven't done so.
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