The Creaming of Short Doughs and Its Impact on the Quality Attributes of Rotary-Molded Biscuits

Abstract

Scant attention has been given to understanding the impact of creaming stability on thefinal structure of semi-sweet biscuits, an aspect that has traditionally concerned the biscuit industry.Accordingly, the aim of this study was to analyze the influence of the creaming phase stability on thequality attributes of rotary-molded biscuits. Doughs were formulated with 10.2% of fat (wet basis)and 16.3% of sucrose (w.b.), using two sucrose particle sizes, which were either added directly orafter dilution in water at different concentrations. Additionally, the creaming phase was preparedusing either a low-shear or a high-shear mixer. The results show that an aqueous-phase migrationoccurred when the creaming was blended in a low-shear mixer, when using either powdered sucroseor granular sucrose diluted in water at a high concentration. The phase separation was inhibited withthe high-shear mixer, which provided a stable creaming. Notwithstanding the variation in creamingstability, no differences were observed in hardness, aeration, sweetness, color and noise intensity.Additionally, the micro-CT analysis revealed that biscuits had a similar microstructure (air porosityand thickness of biscuit walls) when they were prepared with either an unstable or a stable creamingphase. Consequently, creaming stability does not seem to affect the structure and the most relevantsensory attributes of rotary-molded biscuits under this set of experimental conditions, which arerepresentative of those used by the industry for this product category.