Pastry Dough Hardness
Situation
Large scale commercial bakery identified a requirement to measure dough hardness as a predictor to process performance in rotary moulder and plug former.
Dough texture and firmness was identified as critical characteristic to processing performance. If dough were too soft it would stick to the mold and plug former equipment. If too hard it would not fill the mold or crack on crimping.
The ability to be shaped depends on the textural attributes of adhesiveness, cohesiveness and hardness. Once baked into the final pastry product, the ideal sensory mouthfeel perceptions of cripness, crustiness, or crumbliness must be balance with the manufacturing balance of malleability and shortness.
Method
Three replicate penetration tests on a sample taken from the dough mixer.
Dough was pressed into the standard-sized container to maximise reproducibility.
- Identified process and ingredient variables, which affect dough texture
- Upper and lower limits for variables established
- Troubleshooting checklist formed to rectify out of spec dough
- Quality standards set for good and bad dough
Results
• Reduced downtime
• Reduced product wastage due to out of spec dough reaching production line
