Baking & Snack - November 2013 - 86

COOKIES AND CRACKERS

inclusions gently without breaking."
Heat also can damage larger particulates' integrity.
"The inclusions have to be mixed better, and the dough
temperature is more critical because of bigger chunks,"
Mr. van Laar said.
This is important for all cookie dough, but especially
for batches that will end up frozen rather than baked
and packaged. Mixing generates friction, thus heating
doughs, but there are good solutions to this problem.
"With a frozen dough line, you don't want to start with
warm dough before the freezing process," Mr. Wilkinson
said. Tonelli Group's planetary mixer has a shorter mix
time than traditional mixers, which leads to less heat
rise. Bakers can also use cooling jackets or inject cryogens such as nitrogen or carbon dioxide to bring down
dough temperatures.
Chocolate chips, nuts and other
inclusions also take portioning to
While gluten-free may be a small part of the cookie category, many
the next level of difficulty. Weight
bakers see it as the next step to expanding their product offerings.
accuracy is critical to cookie manuMany of the challenges posed by these products often exist on the
facturing. Any reduction in waste
formulation side, but automating production is not without its hurdles.
goes directly to the bottom line.
"For our machines, gluten-free isn't
That's especially true with gourmet
challenging, said Martin Riis, product
"
cookies, where using excess ingremanager, Unfiller. "What we find is more
dients can get expensive, so it is
and more gluten-free producers are tryimperative that bakers avoid any
ing to firm up their recipes so it is more
kind of waste. Baker Perkins of'dough-like,' and therefore our Dopositor
fers the TruClean wirecut depositor
is the perfect machine to produce glutenthat consistently delivers the same
free products on since it can handle a
weight of cookie dough across the
wide range of dough consistencies.
"
entire mechanism. "It doesn't matReiser's depositors also run the
ter where the dough is in the cutter,"
gamut of dough consistency, portionMr. Graham said. "It gets treated the
ing anything from cake batters to
same."
standard cookie dough. The company's
Reiser relies on double-screw
Equipment that can handle a wide variety of
dripless valves, rotary depositors and
technology to handle accurate
dough consistencies can adapt to gluten-free
products easily.
double-screw technology can adapt to
weights differently than a convenUnifiller
gluten-free dough's consistency. "With
tional wirecutter. The double-screw
gluten-free, there is a lot of air entrapment, said John McIsaac, vice"
machine uses a vacuum to pull
president, strategic business development, Reiser. "If you have air in
dough through with the least methe dough, the finished products end up with a lot of holes. The double
chanical force, according to John
screw disperses that air.
"
McIsaac, vice-president, strateGluten-free dough is also very sensitive. Mixing must be done
gic business development, at the
gently, said Kevin Wilkinson, Tonelli Group. The company offers
Canton, MA-based company. "What
variable-speed drives on mixers to provide multiple phases that handle
you get is as close to what goes into
gluten-free doughs with care.
the hopper as possible," he said. Not
Shelf life poses another challenge. So far, the solution has been to
only does the depositor's double
sell gluten-free products frozen, but more and more companies want
screw keep inclusions intact, but its
gluten-free varieties sitting next to their conventional counterparts
knife-style cutter also ensures they
on the fresh shelf. Reiser offers modified atmosphere packaging to
are visible to consumers.
meet that need. This packaging deters mold growth, giving gluten-free
After portioning, cookies and
products a longer shelf life.
crackers to be sold as finished products head to the oven. The proper
thing in it than one that doesn't," Mr. van Laar said.
Inclusions make mixing, portioning and weight control
- everything before the oven - more difficult.
Inclusions lose their charm when they're broken and
battered, so mixing cookie dough with such ingredients
requires gentle folding, not the pounding that happens
when mixing bread dough. For this purpose, Tonelli
Group, Parma, Italy, equips its planetary mixer to handle
large inclusions. "We have specialized mixing elements
designed for gentle mixing of gourmet cookies with big
inclusions, such as chocolate chips and nuts, so they
don't break up during the mixing process," noted Kevin
Wilkinson, North American sales manager, Tonelli
Group. "Programmable variable-speed drives, from
very high RPM to very low, allow bakers to fold in large

Machining solutions for gluten-free cookies

/ Baking & Snack / November 2013

Baking & Snack - November 2013

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