Why does wire cut biscuit dough get sticky when using oil?
Hello
When using oil in a wire cut type cookie (no chips or inclusions), it gets sticky.It causes a lot of problems in process (extruder roll stuck, bad piece deposit, breakage of wires, etc...). When we use solid shortening, dough is perfect. The mixer is a Tonelli vertical type, ~400-450 kg capacity, no jacket, 30 rpm as lower speed. Ingredient water is room temperature.
We don’t have resources to cool the dough below 28ºC, I tried to reduce mixing time, include ice scraps, reduce mixer velocity, increase emulsifier and oil, reduce water, with no results so far. My intention was to achieve a max 21 ºC dough to avoid gluten development, what I believe is the cause of the stickiness.
I really don’t know why this occurs only with oil. And I don’t know how to eliminate this issue. I have been using oil in dough for many moulded and laminated biscuits and crackers so far, with no issues, since some measures are taken, of course.
Maybe someone could explain to me what could be done to solve this issue, and the reason it occurs only with oil in dough?
Thanks in advance
Hi
Ideally I would always prefer using a fat instead of an oil in a short dough because oil and water are immiscible and the water will always separate out during mixing. Shortening or solid fats trap the water during the cream up stage and it becomes dispersed in droplets which aren't available to hydrate materials like gluten or dissolve sugar. It is potentially the sugar dissolving during mixing which is causing the dough to be sticky. Whilst more gluten may be developed in the dough with oil this would result in small dough pieces that flowed less in the oven. not dough stickiness You mentioned that crackers and rotary doughs are okay with oil but this is probably due to :
- Rotary doughs having low levels of added water
- Cracker dough having little or no sugar and are they are often mixed to higher dough temperatures when the shortening would melt anyway
To overcome the stickiness It may be worth making a dough with a larger particle sized sugar as larger particles take longer to dissolve resulting in less syrup in the dough . Another technique often used if wire cut doughs are either too soft or sticky is to rest the dough for at least 30 minutes prior to wire cutting
I hope this helps
Andrew Hughes
Dear Azevedo,
I suggest for wire cutting you please look for weak flour (protein content from 7-9%), This may help you in avoiding sticky ness.
Since you said you tried all emulsification technique, I would still suggest please use DATEM instead of any other emulsifier. As DATEM has very good effect on oil water emulsification.
Also check the dwell time of wire cutting. Both forward and reverse should be smooth and no struck up or wire hitting the nozzle surface. These things may give sticky problem.
Pl give feed back if it helps you.
Hi,
I totally agree with the reasons Andrew has listed and you have already identified the solution yourself. I.e. use solid plasticised fat in the dough.
I would never choose to use an oil in any dough type but the problems are magnified in short doughs. Even using fat try to give the dough as long a standing time as possible as this will help achieve a smooth cut on your wirecut machine.
Regards
John
Hi,
If satfat reduction is the driver then perhaps you could try blending some rape oil with your solid fat.
80/20 palm rape blend works well.
Regards
John
Hi
You don't say what ingredients are in your cookie recipe but it may be that in addition to the suggestions made you may have to do some recipe reformulation. Most cookies contain invert sugars and and syrups like glucose, If these are being used I would look at reformulating the recipe to reduce or replace a portion of these,
Although you are using Datem other emulsifiers which may help are SSL (Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate) and Lecithin.
I have used pre-gelatinised starch in cookie doughs with success.
Andrew Hughes
Dear Jose,
From my experience a hydrocolloid and/ or a combination of soluble and insoluble fiber can aid in this kind of solution. There are certain HPMC's for example that claim to work with fat mimicing properties.
However I don't know what kind of supply you have available in this array.
Thanks, everyone. Unfortunately, fat is not an option anymore, due to nutritional limits for saturated fat (it is becoming usual in many factories), so it is necessary to solve the issue using a technological/process approach. I have worked with other wirecut biscuits using oil with no issues, but they were made in a horizontal high-speed mixer and with lower dough temperatures (~18-20ºC). I tried to use bigger particle size sugar and limit the contact of sugar and water, as Andrew wisely suggested. It helped but didn’t solve the problem. Perhaps if I use some water trapping ingredient during cream stage, like a pre-gelatinized starch, it could work, but that would increase the cost. I am already using DATEM as emulsifier, as suggested Srinivasan.
The score is based on the number of published articles (20 points for every approved article), number of accepted answers (10 points for every accepted answer) and the number of asked questions (3 points for every asked question). The list is showing only top 10 TechTalkers.
