Effect of additives on dough and cookie making properties of flour

The study was carried out to see the effect of different recipe ingredients (shortening, sodium chloride, sugar, sodium bicarbonate and water) on dough and cookie properties. Dough properties were measured using mixograph and cookie fracture force was measured using Instron Universal Testing Machine. Dough and cookie properties were described using regression to fit a response surface analysis. The models computed had correlation coefficient (R-2) values ranging between 90.1-93.0%, regarded as appropriate. Shortening showed greatest effect on peak height of dough followed by sugar, sodium bicarbonate and sodium chloride. Dough development time increased with the increase in sodium chloride and decreased with the increase in shortening level. Both sodium bicarbonate and sodium chloride increased the mixing tolerance of dough. Sugar and sodium bicarbonate were observed to be the main constituents that control spread factor of cookies. Shortening improved cookie spread factor in the presence of high sugar concentration. Fracture force of cookies was observed to mainly dependent on formula water and sugar content.