Cereal Chem 62:263-266   |  VIEW ARTICLE
Effect of Sugar Type and Flour Moisture on Surface Cracking of Sugar-Snap Cookies.

L. C. Doescher and R. C. Hoseney. Copyright 1985 by the American Association of Cereal Chemists, Inc. 

The effect of sugar type and flour moisture on the surfact cracking pattern of sugar-snap cookies was studied. When moisture content of a standard cookie flour was adjusted, cookies baked from those flours showed differences in cracking pattern. Cookies baked from lower moisture flour cracked at each water level tested in the formula, whereas those baked from high-moisture flour did not crack. Flour moisture influenced cracking more than did the total water in the formula. Substitution of small levels of glucose, fructose, maltose, or high-fructose corn syrups for sucrose solids changed the cracking pattern. Cookies made with all fructose syrup or glucose syrup did not crack. Only cookies made with all granular sucrose or all dissolved sucrose exhibited surface cracking. The unique ability of sucrose to recrystallize at the cookie surface during baking appears to be responsible for the surface cracking pattern.