Flours biscuits

Some bread flour mills have difficulty in making a low starch damage soft wheat flour, a job that the mill was not intended for. This is probably why some millers do not make biscuit flours, leaving them as a niche product for the smaller milling companies. 

Wafer Flour. Wafer flour is a type of biscuit flour with the same basic specification of low protein soft wheat flour with a low starch damage. Once again the required dough property is extensibility. The only differences are that if the protein is too low the wafer will be too soft to handle, and if the protein is too high the wafer will be too hard. The other important property is a resistance to gluten separation. Wafer flours are likely to be brown. 

The permitted use level in bread flour in the UK is 75 mg kg 1 in all bread flour except wholemeal and biscuit flour. The use in biscuit flours is permitted at 300 mg kg-1, except where sulfur dioxide or sodium metabisulfite is used. L-Cysteine is also used in pastry as a pastry relaxant. In both pastry and biscuits, not too surprisingly as the chemical action is the opposite of that in bread improvers, the reducing agents... 

Sulfur Dioxide and Sodium Metabisulfite. Sodium metabisulfite is merely used to generate sulfur dioxide in situ. Sulfur dioxide gas can be applied in the flour mill if required. The use of these substances in flour is only permitted in biscuit flours although both of them are permitted in several foods. Sulfur dioxide and sodium metabisulfite are not permitted if L-cysteine is present in flour. 

Experienced Extensograph users learn the characteristic shapes of the extensogram typical for flour suitable for particular uses (Figures 9-11). Bread flours need both resistance and some extensibility while in biscuit flours a low resistance and a high extensibility are needed. 

There is an American test for biscuit flour that involves producing standard cookies baked on a standard aluminium plate. The diameter of the finished product is measured. The greater the diameter the higher the score. This test is of course a measure of dough extensibility, which is the crucial property for biscuit flours. 

The normal flour treatment for biscuit flours is sulfur dioxide. This can either be applied in the gaseous form in the flour mill or sodium metabisulfite can be added to the dough. The sodium metabisulfite releases sulfur dioxide on wetting and heating. 

Uses As mucolytic agent for catarrhs and diarrhea, as a bitter tonic, externally for poorly healing wounds, in cosmetic products, as hair-fixing material, additives to biscuit flour, etc.. 

This chapter reviews the applications of near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy in the cereals industry for the analysis of ingredients (especially flour), process intermediates (dough), and final products (bread, biscuits, flour confectionery, pasta, and breakfast cereals). 

The mean particle size (MPS) is an important quality parameter for biscuit (cookie) flours. Because particle size has a pronounced effect on log(l/R) values, it follows that it can be measured by NIR. Only a single, preferably neutral, wavelength is required [3]. The relationship between MPS and log(l/R) at 2230 nm is nonlinear [3], but over the narrow range typical of U.K. biscuit flours, a sufficiently linear calibration may be obtained. An SEP of 3% was achieved over the range 57 to 74% of flour that passes a 75 /u.m sieve (B. G. Osborne, unpublished results). 

Soft-wheat flours are sold for general family use, as biscuit or cake flours, and for the commercial production of crackers, pretzels, cakes, cookies, and pastry. The protein in soft wheat flour mns from 7 to 10%. There are differences in appearance, texture, and absorption capacity between hard- and soft-wheat flour subjected to the same milling procedures. Hard-wheat flour falls into separate particles if shaken in the hand whereas, soft-wheat flour tends to clump and hold its shape if pressed together. Hard-wheat flour feels slightly coarse and granular when mbbed between the fingers soft-wheat flour feels soft and smooth. Hard-wheat flour absorbs more Hquid than does soft-wheat flour. Consequently, many recipes recommend a variable measure of either flour or Hquid to achieve a desired consistency. 

A neutral bacterial endoprotease can be used to weaken the gluten in wheat flour, if necessary, or to provide the plastic properties required ia a dough used for biscuits. 

While there is a world market for grain and flour there is not a world market for low value short life baked products. The only sort of baked products that can be traded internationally are long life products such as biscuits and rich fruit cakes. 

L-Cysteine hydrochloride E920 All flour used in the manufacture of biscuits, except wholemeal or flour to which E220 sulfur dioxide or E223 sodium metabisullite has been added 300... 

It should be appreciated that a high level of starch damage is not essential in bread. French bread is made from soft wheat flour with a low starch damage. Starch damage is generally undesirable in biscuits. In biscuits the product is cooked to a very low moisture content so binding in water is undesirable. 

Brown flour has all the shelf life and contamination problems of wholemeal flour. Some biscuit and wafer flours are brown merely because they do not need to be white. 

The bread making properties of ordinary white bread flour improve for some time after manufacture, which is the origin of oxidative flour treatments. The shelf life of such a flour is around a year. If the moisture content can be kept low, either by selecting low moisture wheat or by drying wheat, the shelf life can be increased to three years. This sort of flour is supplied for ship s stores and similar purposes. This is the modern alternative to ship s biscuits. 

Pure starch is not much used in bakery products. Some maize starch goes into a few types of biscuits or cakes under the heading of corn flour . A few starch gels are applied on bakery flans. 

The situation is worse where the final product is not bread but some other product, e.g. biscuits. Analytical measurements performed on flour are aimed at measuring its suitability for making bread. For biscuits, the protein content is not important except that for most biscuits high protein flour will not give a satisfactory product. 

NABIM group 3 wheat is suitable for making biscuit and blending flours as it gives an extensible dough, and is also suitable for blending with strong wheats. 

The most important dough property in biscuit doughs is extensibility. Resistance is undesirable. The only type of flour that can not be used to... 

There are some soft wheats, both French and North American, that have bread making properties. Flour made from these wheats can be used for biscuits. 

The preference for low protein, low starch damage flour in biscuits is obvious when the role of protein and damaged starch as water binders is considered. The aim in making biscuits is to produce a low moisture food. Incorporating components that bind water makes that aim more difficult. Table 2 considers the relative properties of biscuit and bread flours. 

Table 2 Comparison of flours used bread and biscuits...

Wafers are an unusual product. They are often incorrectly included with biscuits, possibly because they are both made from soft wheat flour. Wafers, unlike biscuits, are a low fat, low sugar product. They normally consist almost entirely of flour. There is a very wide difference between the various sorts of wafers. Some wafers are made to serve with ice cream others are made to covered in chocolate and sold as confectionery. 

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