DisplayTitle

Effect of Formula Water Content on the Spread of Sugar-Snap Cookies¹

¹Contribution 97-342-J from the Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station. ²Research associate and professor, respectively, Department of Grain Science and Industry, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506. ³Present address: R&R Research Services, 8831 Quail Lane, Manhattan, KS 66502. ⁴Corresponding author. E-mail: r_and_r@kansas.net Phone: 785/537-5199. Fax: 785/537-7477. ⁵USDA-ARS Western Wheat Quality Laboratory, E-202 Food Science and Human Nutrition Facility East, Pullman, WA 99164-6394. Mention of trademark or proprietary products does not constitute a guarantee or warranty by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and does not imply its approval to the exclusion of other products that may also be suitable.

Sugar-snap cookie doughs prepared with a commercial soft wheat flour and standard formula water (25%, fwb) produced baked cookies with a mean diameter of 186 mm. Increasing the formula water to 30% resulted in cookies with a mean diameter of 187 mm and decreasing the formula water to 20% resulted in cookies with a mean diameter of 185 mm. A similar effect was seen when the formula water in cookie doughs prepared with the pure hard red spring cultivar Butte 86 or the pure soft white winter club cultivar Paha was varied. Thus, varying the formula water in cookie dough appeared to have little or no effect on final cookie diameter. Formula water content, however, did affect cookie dough spread rate and set time during baking. Increasing the formula water caused the spread rate to increase but shortened the set time. As a result, final cookie diameter was essentially unchanged.