Baking&Snack - March 2017 - 89

EQUIPMENT
Cookie Tech

Now
Imagine That
Cookie producers strive to reinvigorate
the category with new products and
technology from across the globe.
by Dan Malovany

Often a world of opportunity can be found buried right
in one's backyard. It sometimes comes from adding a
newfangled twist to on an old-fashioned holiday cookie
recipe inspired by a family member decades ago. Other
times, it's as easy as bringing home a taste of a baker's
travels to provide international flair to the local market.
At the Winter Fancy Food show, held in San Francisco
this January, New York-based Unna Bakery rolled out
traditional Swedish cookies using family recipes and
organic ingredients. The products ranged from cardamom and chocolate caramel flavors to a variety called
Farmer's Cookie, featuring butter and almonds with
Swedish golden syrup.
Others sniffed out opportunities right under their
noses by adding a touch of savory to a treat that's traditionally sweet. The Perfect Bite, Glendale, CA, launched a
Sophisticated Cookies line, inspired by European flavors
featuring salted rosemary butter, Parmesan butter with
fennel and sea salt and spiced chai sugar.
Throughout the past two decades, companies such

as Ellison Bakery of Fort Wayne, IN, or Richmond
Baking of Richmond, IN, have even created a whole
market by breaking convention, making the cookie
crumble so customers could add those pieces to yogurt or ice cream.
Overall, market statistics suggest the $8.2 billion
cookie category is a large but mature market.
However, new products in even the most conventional of categories come not only from all forms of inspiration but also from all types of innovation in process
application with new or existing technology.
Rheon, for example, is known for its co-extrusion
technology often used in making high-end filled cookies with up to three doughs or fillings. "My favorite is
a peanut-butter-and-jelly cookie," said John Giacoio, national sales director, Rheon USA. "If you were to cut one
of these cookies in half, it would look like a perfect bull's
eye with the jelly in the center surrounded by peanut
butter with cookie dough on the outside."
Another popular filled cookie offers a slight variation.
"Instead of enclosing the filling, we use a special device
to leave the top of the cookie open," Mr. Giacoio noted.
"This allows the customer to be able to see the filling. It's
like a mini tart."
The proliferation of limited-time offerings and seasonal items requires multifaceted equipment that's versatile enough to respond to a changing, impulse-driven
market. The resulting products may include new shapes
or holiday-themed treats that consist of two- or three-

Bakers want to develop
healthy cookies with large
inclusions that remain intact
during the extrusion and
forming process.
Handtmann

www.bakingandsnack.com / March 2017 Baking & Snack 89

http://www.bakingandsnack.com

Baking&Snack - March 2017

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Baking&Snack - March 2017