The raw and auxiliary materials for the production of cookies mainly include flour, sugar, oil, starch, yeast, salt and so on. The quality of raw and auxiliary materials and the method and effect of pretreatment directly affect the quality of the product.

Flour

The flour used for cookies is generally low in ash content, the coarseness and fineness are required to be able to pass through a 150μm mesh sieve, and the gluten is small. According to the characteristics of different types of cookies, there are slight differences in the content of wet gluten, the following are common cookies on the flour requirements.

(I) Ductile cookies
The production of tough cookies wheat flour, it is appropriate to use medium gluten elasticity, good extensibility, low gluten content of the flour, generally to the wet gluten content of 21% to 28% is appropriate. If the gluten content is high, strong gluten, the production of cookies is easy to shrink, deformation, taste burgundy, surface blistering, therefore, the gluten content is too high wheat flour, it is appropriate to add an appropriate amount of starch to dilute, adjust; if the gluten content is too low, weak gluten, cookies will be cracked, easy to break.

(B) sweet and crispy cookies
The production of sweet and crispy cookies flour to be soft wheat processing of weak gluten flour, the requirements of wet gluten content of 19% to 22%, if the gluten is too strong, still need to be adjusted with starch.

(iii) Fermented cookies
Fermented cookies generally use the second fermentation production technology, the two feeding flour selection also has certain differences, in the first dough fermentation, due to the fermentation time is longer, in order to make the dough can withstand a longer period of fermentation without leading to excessive reduction in the elasticity of the dough, should be used in the wet gluten content of about 30%, glutenous flour; the second fermentation of the dough, the time is shorter, it is desirable to use the wet gluten content of 24% to 26%, slightly weaker gluten content. ～For the second fermentation, when the time is shorter, it is better to use flour with wet gluten content of 24% to 26% and slightly weaker gluten. If the gluten is too low, the cookies appear crispy but not crisp; gluten is too high, the cookies are easy to shrink and deform, the taste is crisp but not crispy.

(D) Wafer cookies
Wafer cookies choose flour to wet gluten content of 23% to 24% of the appropriate. If the gluten is too strong, it is easy to rise in the process of mixing, and the cookies produced are dry and hard and not crisp; on the contrary, if the gluten of the flour is not enough, the cookies produced are easy to break and easy to stick to the mold in the production.

Flour generally needs to be processed before use. First, sifting: not only to remove impurities, but also to ensure that the flour mixed with a certain amount of air, conducive to the crispness of the cookies; the second is the installation of magnets in the sifting system, adsorption of magnetic substances; third, according to the different seasons, changes in temperature, the temperature of the flour should be effectively adjusted. Generally, when the flour is used in winter, it is transported to the workshop in advance in order to increase the temperature of the flour; in summer, the flour is stored in a ventilated, low-temperature and dry place, which is convenient to reduce the temperature of the flour.

Starch

When the gluten of wheat flour is too high, starch needs to be added to dilute the gluten protein and reduce the gluten of the dough. Commonly added starches are wheat starch, corn starch and potato starch. Starch is treated in much the same way as flour before use.

Grease

Cookie production requires the selection of excellent shortening and high stability of the fat, different varieties of cookies on the fat requirements vary.

(1) tough cookies production with less oil, commonly used to cream, margarine, refined lard and so on. As tough cookies are usually added during the operation of the sulfite improver can promote the rancidity of fats and oils, it is not suitable for the use of unsaturated fatty acids higher vegetable oils, such as peanut oil, sunflower oil, etc.,.

(2) crisp cookies and sweet shortbread cookies production of large amounts of fat, both to consider the excellent stability of fat, shortening better, but also requires the selection of higher melting point of fat, otherwise it is very easy to cause too high a temperature of the dough or the melting point of the fat is too low leading to an increase in the dispersion of fat, the occurrence of the phenomenon of “go oil”. The most suitable fats for high fat products are margarine and vegetable shortening.

(3) The fats and oils used in the production of fermented cookies require both shortening and stability, especially in terms of shortening, which is more demanding than that of tough cookies. Refined lard shortening is the most favorable for making delicate, crispy fermented cookies. Vegetable shortening is ideal for improving the level of cookies, but the fluffiness is a bit poor, so we can use vegetable shortening and good lard to achieve complementary effects.

Yeast

In the production of fermented cookies, the yeast is an important factor in the whole process, if the performance of the yeast is not good, it will bring irreparable losses to the production of cookies. Therefore, the quality of yeast should be identified and selected before production.

(1) Pay attention to the date of production, and choose the yeast within the shelf life;
(2) Selection of packaging hard yeast, active dry yeast is often vacuum packaging, if the bag becomes soft, indicating that there is air into the vitality will be greatly reduced;
(3) Pay attention to the choice of yeast type, there are two types of yeast, high sugar type and low sugar type, usually printed on the bag “high sugar type” or “low sugar type”.

Yeast treatment before use: instant active dry yeast can be directly put into the flour for fermentation, but fresh yeast and active dry yeast must be activated before use.

The activation treatment of fresh yeast: put the yeast into warm water at 26-30℃, add a little sugar, stir the yeast in the warm water, activate it for 20-30mins, and when a lot of bubbles appear on the surface, it can be put into production.

The activation process of active dry yeast is similar to that of fresh yeast, but the activation time is longer.