Journal of Cereal Science 49 (2009) 178183

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Journal of Cereal Science

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jcs

Effect of our type and dough rheological properties on cookie spread

measured dynamically during baking
Mehri HadiNezhad, Francis Butler*
Biosystems Engineering, UCD School of Agriculture, Food Science and Veterinary Medicine, University College Dublin, Beleld, Dublin 4, Ireland

a r t i c l e i n f o

a b s t r a c t

Article history:
Received 7 February 2008
Received in revised form 24 July 2008
Accepted 5 September 2008

In order to monitor changes that occurred in cookie diameter during baking, a method of calculating
cookie diameter was developed using Image Tools software. Cookie images were taken at 30-s intervals
during baking using a digital camera. Six biscuit our types were used in the trial. After the rst minutes
of baking, a rapid period of expansion started which was signicantly different for our types and nally,
after approximately 6th min to the end of baking, cookies showed a slight shrinkage in diameter. A high
and signicant correlation was found between cookie spread rate and cookie nal diameter (r 0.73,
P < 0.001). The technique of lubricated uniaxial compression showed all doughs made from different
biscuit our indicated pseudo-plastic rheological behaviour. However, the measured extensional properties did not correlate with the cookie nal diameter.
2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords:
Cookie diameter
Spread rate during baking
Biaxial extensional viscosity
Three-point snap test

1. Introduction
Flour is the principal component of nearly all biscuits. A standard baking test has been developed and widely accepted for
evaluating soft wheat our for biscuit use (AACC, 2000a). The
extent to which the dough piece spreads during baking, i.e., cookie
diameter, is a major parameter measured. Signicant differences
occur in the spread potential of different soft our varieties. The
effects of ingredients and our components on nal cookie diameter have been studied extensively, but few studies of what
happens during the baking cycle have been reported (Curley and
Hoseney, 1984; Doecher et al., 1987; Yamazaki, 1959). Abboud et al.
(1985) photographed cookies during baking at 1 min intervals
using a time-lapse procedure. They positioned a metal ruler at the
centre of the cookie sheet. Their results showed that during baking,
the diameter of cookies increased linearly, then after a certain time
became xed. Final cookie diameter was controlled by cookie
spread rate and set time. A similar procedure was used by Miller
and Hoseney (1997a) and Miller et al. (1997) to determine spread
rate and set time of a single cookie. They photographed the cookie
at 30 s intervals during baking and measured diameter directly
from the photos using a metal bar of known dimension placed
beside the cookie and guidelines drawn 8.9 cm from one end of the
baking sheet and down the centre to form a cross. They showed
that cookies made with soft wheat our had a larger diameter,

* Corresponding author. Biosystems Engineering, Earlsfort Terrace, Dublin 2,

Dublin, Leinster, Ireland. Tel.: 353 1 7167473; fax: 353 1 7167415.
E-mail address: f.butler@ucd.ie (F. Butler).
0733-5210/$ see front matter 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jcs.2008.09.004

faster spread rate, and later set time than cookies baked with hard
wheat our. The variations in short dough biscuit sizes during
baking were monitored by Chevallier et al. (2002) using a colour
video camera. The camera monitored the rise in dough samples
during baking at 5-s intervals. After calibration and conversion of
digitised images, sample thickness was measured. Sample thickness rst increased rapidly to a maximum value reached before the
maximum internal biscuit temperature, and then subsequently
reduced. From their observations, they dened three major changes
that occurred during baking: (i) an increase in biscuit thickness
through the production of gases from chemical leaveners and water
vaporisation; (ii) a decrease in product weight due to drying,
resulting in a large decrease in product density and the development of an open porous structure; and (iii) the browning of the
biscuit surface, possibly due to starch dextrinisation and sugar
caramelisation.
Cookie spread rate appears to be controlled by dough viscosity
(Abboud et al., 1985; Hoseney and Rogers, 1994; Hoseney et al.,
1988). Because gravity and the amount of leavening are constant,
the ow of the dough is controlled by the viscosity. As the
temperature of the dough increased, the apparent viscosity
decreased. The cookie apparently expanded until the viscosity
suddenly increased, as shown by Yamazaki (1959) using a vibratory
viscometer. He suggested that changes in the limited quantity of
water present and intensive competition for the water among the
various our components may contribute materially to cookie
quality. Miller and Hoseney (1997b) measured the extensional
viscosity of cookie dough, and they related viscosity to cookie
diameter. Lubricated squeezing ow was able to discriminate
viscosities of doughs from different soft wheat cultivars. Doughs

M. HadiNezhad, F. Butler / Journal of Cereal Science 49 (2009) 178183

with lower viscosity cause cookies to spread at a faster rate

(Hoseney and Rogers, 1994; Hoseney et al., 1988). The objective of
this study was to evaluate effect of our types and dough rheological properties on cookie spread measured dynamically during
baking using digital imaging.

179

dough sample was prepared by cutting the dough using an

aluminium cookie cutter (6 cm diameter) and scrap dough was
lifted and discarded. The weight of six cookie doughs and cookie
sheet was recorded. Dough density was calculated as the weight of
a dough piece divided by the nominal dough piece volume
(1.98  105 m3).

2. Experimental
2.4. Cookie baking
2.1. Cookie ingredients
Six our types were used in the trial, a our formulated for
domestic baking (Tesco value plain our, Tesco Ireland Ltd, Dublin,
Ireland); a commercial biscuit our (Odlums biscuit our, Odlums
Ltd, Dublin, Ireland); four commercial English biscuit ours grade
III (sourced from Odlums Ltd, Dublin, Ireland, referred to in the text
as English grade III ours 14). The other ingredients were nely
ground sugar (Dunnes Stores Ltd, Dublin, Ireland); shortening
margarine (Stork, Unilever Foods Ireland, Dublin, Ireland); salt
(Saxa, RHM Foods Limited, Middlewich, Cheshire, UK); bicarbonate
of soda (Bread soda, Shamrock Foods Ltd, Dublin, Ireland); dextrose
hydrous (D()-Glucose Mono-hydrate, Riedel-de Haen, Sigma
Aldrich Laborchemikalien, Germany). The cookie dough formulation used is shown in Table 1.

A convection oven (Tricity Bendix model: SE454BK, Tricity

Bendix, Luton, UK) was used to bake the cookies. A T-type thermocouple was placed in the oven (in the top of the cookie sheet) to
record temperature at 20 s intervals during baking. Temperature
data were recorded by a Grant 1600 data logger (Grant Instruments
Ltd, Cambridge, UK). The oven set point was adjusted in advance of
the experiments using the thermocouple to give the required
baking temperature (205  C) at the location of the cookie sheet. The
cookie sheet with six cookie doughs was placed in the centre of the
oven, and baked at 205  C for 10 min. After baking was nished, the
weight of the six cookies and cookie sheet was recorded and weight
loss was calculated as the difference in weights between cookies
before and after baking. In all, the baking tests and associated
measurements were replicated four times for each our sample.

2.2. Flour analysis

2.5. Dynamic diameter measurements

Flour protein content was measured using a Leco protein analyzer

(Leco FP- 428 Nirogen Analyser, Leco Corporation, St. Joseph, MI,
USA). Flour farinograph parameters were measured according to the
ICC, International Association for Cereal Science and Technology,
standard 115/1 (ICC, 1992). Flour moisture contents were measured
according to the AACC Approved Method 44-15A (AACC, 2000b). All
analyses were conducted in duplicate.

In order to monitor the changes in cookie diameter during

baking, the cookie sheet was marked using a sharp metal point
with equidistance parallel lines (3 cm apart). Cookies in the middle
of the cookie sheet (three cookies) only were considered to
measure diameter during baking, and the average of the three
cookie diameters was recorded. A digital camera (Canon Power
Shot A520, Canon Inc., Tokyo, Japan), (shooting mode, programme
AE; shutter speed set automatically by camera (1/41/8 s); aperture
value, 2.6; image size, 1600  1200; ash, off), was used to photograph the cookies at 30 s intervals, except in the rst and last four
minutes which were at 1 min intervals, during baking. Lighting was
provided by the ambient lighting within the oven. Images were
stored in JPEG format. Cookie diameter was calculated from the
images using Image Tools software (UTHSCSA Image Tool v.2.0,
University of Texas Health Science Centre, San Antonio, Texas) after
calibration of the image using the line markings for each cookie,
separately.

2.3. Dough preparation

All ingredients were accurately weighed (Sartorius model
LA620P, Sartorius AG, Goettingen, Germany; accuracy 0.001 g)
and allowed to reach room temperature prior to mixing. Cookie
doughs were prepared according to the AACC Approved Method
10-50D (AACC, 2000a). Dough was mixed using a Kenwood electronic Mixer (Model Km230, Kenwood Ltd., Havant, UK) with a at
beater. First shortening, sugar, salt, and soda were mixed at low
speed (Kenwood mixer speed 3) for 3 min, scraped down after each
min, dextrose solution and distilled water were then added and
mixed at low speed for 1 min, scraped down, and mixed at medium
speed (Kenwood mixer speed 5) for 1 min. Finally, all the our was
added and mixed at low speed for 2 min, scraped down after each
30 min. After mixing nished, six portions of dough (w35 g) were
placed on a greased Teon coated cookie sheet, and the dough was
attened and rolled by rolling pin to the desired thickness (0.7 cm)
using 0.7 cm gauge strips laid along each side of the dough. Cookie

Table 1
Cookie dough formulation

2.6. Width/thickness ratio

After cooling for 30 min, cookies were laid edge to edge and the
width of six cookies was measured. By rotating the cookies through
90 and rearranging them, an average of six readings were recorded
as cookie width. For thickness measurements, six cookies were
stacked on top of one another. By restacking them in different
orders, an average of six reading were recorded as cookie thickness.
Spread factor was calculated according to the AACC Approved
Method 10-50D (AACC, 2000a):

Spread factor CF  W=T  100

Ingredients

Weight (g)

Flour (14% mb)a

Sugar
Shortening (margarine)
Dextrose solutionb
Bicarbonate of soda
Salt
Distilled watera

225.0
130.0
64.0
33.0
2.5
2.1
16.0

where CF, the correction factor, depends on lab elevation and

barometric pressure reading correlated to sea level existing when
the test cookie was baked (AACC, 2000a), W is the width, and T is
the thickness.
2.7. Cookie surface colour measurements

Amount of our and water were adjusted depending on our moisture content
according to the AACC Approved method 10-50D (AACC, 2000a).
b
8.9 g dextrose hydrous in 150 ml distilled water.

Cookie surface colour was measured 30 min after baking with

a Hunter lab colorimeter (Chroma CR300, Minolta LTD, Japan).

180

M. HadiNezhad, F. Butler / Journal of Cereal Science 49 (2009) 178183

Lightness (L), red (a), and yellow (b) values were obtained after
calibrating the instrument using a white tile. Six readings were
taken from six cookies and the average value was reported.
2.8. Apparent biaxial extensional viscosity
Dough samples for rheological measurements were obtained
from the same batch of dough used for the baking tests. The dough
was stored in sealed plastic bags at room temperature until
required. Dough samples were prepared by sheeting seven portions
of dough, with a rolling pin and gauge strips of 1.2 cm over the
cookie sheet. The sheeted doughs were cut by an aluminium cutter
(5 cm, diameter), so that the nal dough samples were a cylinder of
5 cm diameter and 1.2 cm height. Apparent biaxial extensional
viscosity (ABEV) of the dough was measured using an Instron
Universal Testing Machine (model 4301, Instron Corporation,
Highwycombe, UK), following the lubricated uniaxial compression
method (Baltsavias et al., 1999; Campanella and Peleg, 2002;
Kokelaar et al., 1996). Both sides of the cookie dough in contact with
disk and plunger were adequately lubricated with oil to minimise
the friction effect on stress. The cookie dough was placed on a disk
(5 cm, diameter), and a plunger (5 cm, diameter) attached to an
Instron load cell of 100 kg compressed the dough 9 mm at a crosshead speed of 50 mm/min. Fig. 1 shows the experimental apparatus. The rst test was carried out 90 min after mixing ended, and
the average of seven dough sample data was recorded (total test
time was about 15 min). Apparent biaxial extensional viscosity
(ABEV) of the dough was computed by the formula

ABEV 2Ft ht =pR2 vPa s

where Ft is the compression force (N) at time of t; ht is the height of
the dough sample (m) at time t; R is the initial radius (m) of the
dough sample; v is the crosshead speed (m/s).

2.9. Three-point break test

The textural characteristics of cookies were measured using
a three-point break technique similar to Sindhuja et al. (2005). Two
beams (8.8 cm long, 3.0 cm high) were spaced vertically at 4 cm
distance apart on a horizontal plane. The cutting beam (8.8 cm long,
4.0 cm high) was attached to an Instron (model 4301, Instron
Corporation, Highwycombe, UK). The surfaces of the three points of
contact were equipped with a round aluminium bar (4 mm,
diameter) to minimise line stresses during bending and breaking
(Bruns and Bourne, 1975). The test was performed by supporting
a cookie across the two beams and driving the upper beam down at
a constant speed of 50 mm/min until the sample snapped. Cookies
after baking were cooled to room temperature for 30 min, packed
in sealed plastic bags and kept in an airtight container in a room at
constant temperature (21 1  C) and relative humidity (39%). The
snap test was conducted after 24 h storage. Six break tests were
conducted on six cookies and the average value was reported.
2.10. Statistical analysis
Data was analysed by our type using a one-way analysis of data
(MSTATC, Plant and Soil Sciences, Michigan State University, East
Lansing, MI, USA). Signicant treatments were further analysed
with the Duncans multiple range test. Correlations between
selected baking and rheological characteristics were performed
using Microsoft Excel (Version 2003).
3. Results and discussion
The characteristics of the six ours used are shown in Table 2.
Moisture content ranged from 12.8% for the Odlums our and
English grade III our 4 to 14% for the plain our. Protein content
varied from 8.75% to 9.72%. The plain our and the English grade III
our 3 had the highest and lowest protein content, respectively.
The protein content range was a typical range of ours used for
cookie baking. Water absorption varied from 53% for the English
grade III our 1 to 58% for the plain our. Dough development times
were almost similar for the six ours indicating similar hydration
rate. However, the Odlums our had a lower dough stability time
compared to the other ours indicating that this our was less
tolerant to over-mixing than the other ours (not suitable for bread
making). The plain our had the lowest degree of softening. This
would be expected for commercial bread our indicating that its
consistency did not decrease appreciably with over-mixing.
Fig. 2 shows some of the images taken during baking. Spread
was slow for the rst minute, but, after that, a period of rapid
expansion took place up to 6 min and in the last stage of baking
there was some contraction in thickness and a slight shrinkage in
diameter. Because of CO2 gases produced by the raising agents and
water evaporation, cookies underwent a substantial expansion in
both width and height early in baking. However, Slade and Levine
(1994) reported that cookies collapsed at the end of baking

Table 2
Characteristics of our types

Fig. 1. View of a dough specimen and test apparatus before compression in the biaxial
extensional viscosity test.

Flour type

Moisture
content
(%)

Protein
content
(%)

Water
absorption
(%)

Dough
development
time (min)

Dough
stability
(min)

Degree of
softening
(BU)

Plain
Odlums
English 1
English 2
English 3
English 4

14.0
12.8
13.8
13.1
12.9
12.8

9.72
9.15
9.16
9.42
8.75
9.27

58.0
56.2
53.0
54.0
55.7
54.5

2.0
1.5
1.5
1.5
2.0
2.0

2.0
1.5
2.5
4.5
2.0
3.5

40
60
60
60
90
80

M. HadiNezhad, F. Butler / Journal of Cereal Science 49 (2009) 178183

181

Fig. 2. Images taken during cookie expansion (English grade III our 4). The numbers on each image represent the time (min) of baking at which the image was taken.

apparently because the structure property of gluten in cookie our

favours a two-dimensional collapsible lm formation rather than
a three-dimensional elastic network formation.
Fig. 3 compares the cookie spread during baking for the six our
samples. There was a similar prole of increasing and decreasing
spread for all the six our samples. However, maximum diameter
during baking was signicantly higher for cookies made from the
English grade III ours 2 and 4 compared to the other ours
(P < 0.001, Table 3). Spread rate was determined by measuring the
slope of the linear part of the diametertime plot shown in Fig. 3
(14.5 min), (Table 3). ANOVA results showed a small difference in

Table 3
Baking characteristics of cookies during and after baking for different our types

Diameter (cm)

the spread rate between the English grade III ours 1 and 2
(P 0.08). Cookie set time is dened as the time at which the
cookie reaches its maximum spread during baking (Table 3). There
was a difference (0.75 min, P < 0.05) in cookie set time between the
plain our and English grade III our 4. Abboud et al. (1985)
reported an earlier cookie set time for cookies prepared from hard
wheat our than soft white spring, soft white winter, or club wheat
ours. They proposed that a temperature-mediated change in
viscosity controls the set time of cookie doughs and hard our
doughs set at a lower temperature than soft our doughs because
hard ours have a lower temperature change in viscosity. Miller
and Hoseney (1997a) showed a cookie set time of 5.8 and 5.1 min
for cookie doughs made from soft wheat and hard wheat ours,
respectively. Table 3 shows cookie diameter at the end of baking.
English grade III ours 2 and 4 produced cookies with larger

Plain
Odlums
English 1
English 2
English 3
English 4

5
0

10

11

12

Time (min)
Fig. 3. Comparison of cookie diameter development during baking for different our
types.

Flour type

Plain

Odlums English 1 English 2 English 3 English 4 SED

Maximum
diameter during
baking (cm)
Cookie spread
rate (cm/min)
Cookie set
time (min)
Cookie diameter
at the end
of baking (cm)
Width (cm)
Thickness (cm)
Spread factor
Shrinkage during
baking (cm)
Shrinkage after
baking (cm)

8.28b

8.31b

0.60abc 0.59bc
5.13c
7.94

8.27b

8.48a

8.26b

8.55a

0.044

0.56c

0.65a

0.61abc

0.64ab

0.030

5.25bc

5.38bc

5.88a

0.186

0.060

5.50abc 5.63ab
8.06

bc

7.98

8.18

ab

7.95

8.29

7.36b
1.42
51.9b
0.31

7.47b
1.45
51.8b
0.25

7.50b
1.34
56.5a
0.31

7.76a
1.37
56.7a
0.31

7.52b
1.44
52.0b
0.32

7.80a
1.39
56.0ab
0.27

0.076
0.039
1.95
0.028

0.59a

0.59a

0.48ab

0.42b

0.43ab

0.49ab

0.049

Means in row with different superscript letters are signicantly different (P < 0.05,
*P 0.08).

182

M. HadiNezhad, F. Butler / Journal of Cereal Science 49 (2009) 178183

Table 4
Physical and rheological properties of cookie dough and baked cookies
Flour

Plain

Odlums

English 1

English 2

English 3

English 4

SED

Dough density (kg/m3)

Dough viscosity at maximum strain rate (104 Pa s)
Slopef (104 Pa s2)
Cookie colour
Lightness (%)
Red value (a)
Yellow value (b)
Maximum snap force (N)

1435a
10.35a
20.06a

1388b
8.36b
4.06d

1382b
6.65d
6.08c

1379bc
7.05d
6.04c

1358cd
7.84c
10.41b

1345d
7.70c
10.52b

13
0.175
1.86

61.2
4.80a
25.5a
20.0

61.0
3.74bc
24.1bc
20.5

61.0
2.80e
23.1c
20.6

61.1
3.23d
25.0ab
18.7

61.6
3.41cd
25.9a
19.3

60.3
3.89b
25.2ab
20.3

0.44
0.115
0.37
0.97

Means in row with different superscript letters are signicantly different (P < 0.001).
f
The slope of the linear regain of viscosity versus strain rate.

dough density and nal cookie diameter. Weight loss was calculated for each cookie as the difference between weights of cookie
after baking and cookie dough before baking. Weight loss could be
used as an indicator of the amount of water evaporated and porous
structure developed during baking (Chevallier et al., 2002). Weight
loss was not signicantly different between our samples; however
the cookies lost about 12% of their weight during baking.
The method of lubricated squeezing ow was used to investigate the apparent biaxial extensional viscosity of cookie dough.
Fig. 4 depicts the relationship between biaxial strain rate and
apparent biaxial extensional viscosity of cookie doughs prepared
with the different ours. The viscosity proles of all samples were
similar; a sharp initial rise followed by a gradual increase to the
maximum viscosity and, after that, a period of slight decline, except
for the plain our which rose to a considerably higher viscosity
than the other ours.
Viscosities calculated at maximum stain rate (0.139 s1) showed
that plain our had a signicantly (P < 0.001) higher value than the
other ve ours (Table 4). Among the English grade III ours, ours
1 and 2 had signicantly lower viscosity than ours 3 and 4.
Odlums biscuit our showed a rheological behaviour similar to
English grade III ours 3 and 4 except at the end period of
compression (above a strain rate 0.08 s1). After the initial

140000

120000

100000

Viscosity (Pa.s)

diameters at the end of baking than the other our samples

(P < 0.001).
There was a high and signicant correlation between cookie
spread rate and cookie nal diameter (r 0.73, P < 0.001).
However, the correlation between cookie set time and cookie nal
diameter was poor and non-signicant (r 0.15). Several
researchers (Abboud et al., 1985; Miller and Hoseney, 1997a; Miller
et al., 1997) showed that the nal cookie diameter is a function of
spread rate and set time. The faster the spread rate and later the set
time are, the bigger is the cookie diameter. However, it was not
clear in these studies if there was a statistically signicant correlation. It should be mentioned that the our samples used by these
researchers were from two different classes, soft and hard wheat
ours. It is well known that soft wheat our is a suitable our for
biscuit baking while hard wheat our is a poor our to make good
quality biscuits. It could explain why, in present study, cookie set
time showed poor correlation with cookie diameter considering
that the our samples were all from a soft wheat our class.
Table 3 shows the cookie diameter measured 30 min after
baking (width). There was a signicant difference (P < 0.001) in
width between English grade III ours 2 and 4, and the other four
ours. Thickness was not signicantly different for the six our
types. Spread factor, that is an indicator of width/thickness ratio,
was signicantly different (P < 0.05). English grade III ours 1 and 2
produced cookies that showed a bigger spread factor compared to
cookies made from the plain ours, Odlums ours, and English
grade III our 3 (Table 3). Width is recommended as the most
sensitive and reliable estimate of our quality (AACC, 2000a). The
spread factor is a ratio of two measured parameters, width and
thickness which can individually vary but result in the same spread
factor value. This phenomenon was observed for cookies made
from English grade III ours 1, 2 and 3. Although cookies made from
English grade III our 1 had a smaller diameter than English grade
III ours 2 and 4, they showed a similar spread factor to English
grade III ours 2 and 4.
Shrinkage during baking was calculated as the difference
between the cookie diameter at its maximum and nal diameter
(Table 3). Flour type had no signicant effect on shrinkage during
baking; however, cookies shrank approximately 3% by the end of
baking. Shrinkage after baking was the difference between cookie
diameters in the end of baking and 30 min after baking (Table 3).
Cookies shrank more after baking than during baking, and the
values were signicantly different (P < 0.05) for our type. Cookie
made from Odlums and the plain ours had greater shrinkage after
baking compared to English grade III our 2.
Cookie dough density can be considered as an indicator of the
amount of air incorporated into the dough during mixing.
Flour type showed a signicant effect (P < 0.001) on dough density
(Table 4). Plain our had the highest dough density indicating the
least amount of air incorporated into the dough system and as
a result smaller cookie diameter. However, there was a small but
signicant negative correlation (r 0.44, P < 0.05) between

80000

60000

40000
Plain
Odlums
English 1
English 2
English 3
English 4

20000

0
0

0.03

0.06

0.09

0.12

0.15

Strain rate (s-1)

Fig. 4. Mean value of biaxial extensional viscosity as a function of biaxial strain rate for
dough made from different our types.

M. HadiNezhad, F. Butler / Journal of Cereal Science 49 (2009) 178183

4. Conclusion

20

15

Force (N)

183

10

0
0

10

Displacement (mm)
Fig. 5. Typical forcedisplacement curve for the three-point snap test carried out 24 h
after storage on the cookie made from Odlums biscuit our.

increasing period, the best linear trend line was tted to the linear
region of each curve (from 0.090 to 0.139 s1 strain rate) and
the negative of the slope of each line was compared statistically
(Table 4). Plain our and Odlums our showed the highest and
lowest value for the slope, respectively (P < 0.001). The cookie
dough showed pseudo-plastic behaviour, because viscosity
decreased with increasing strain rate for all doughs made from the
different ours.
There was a signicant correlation (r 0.62, P 0.001)
between nal extensional viscosity and cookie dough density for
doughs made with different our types. However, correlation
between dough viscosity and cookie nal diameter was weak and
non-signicant (r 0.30). For the commercial biscuit ours used
in this study, the biaxial extensional viscosity test would appear not
to be able to predict spread behaviour during baking. Miller and
Hoseney (1997b) found a large difference in extensional viscosity
between cookie dough made with hard wheat and soft wheat our.
They found a high correlation between cookie dough viscosity and
cookie diameter made with different soft wheat ours (r 0.796).
However, the compression method and dough preparation procedure they used was slightly different from that used in our study.
The effect of our types on cookie colour is shown in Table 4.
Maillard reaction that occurs between amino acid/peptides and
reducing carbohydrates is responsible for the aroma and colour of
fried, baked, roasted or other heat-treated foods (Belitz and Grosch,
1992). All cookies made from the six different our types showed
an acceptable overall colour. ANOVA results showed that the our
type had signicant (P < 0.001) effects on the red value (a) and
yellow value (b), but lightness values were similar for all six our
types. Plain our produced cookies with highest (a) values while
the English grade III our 1 produced cookies with the lowest (a)
value. English grade III our 1 produced cookies which were less
yellow (b value) than the other ve our samples.
Fig. 5 shows a typical pattern of cookie snapping during
compression using the Instron machine. As the test was carried out
after 24 h storage, there was no sharp break (cookie bent before it
broke) for any cookie made from different our types. To maintain
a soft texture, it is essential that cookies are stored under a constant
relative humidity in good packaging condition (Hoseney and
Rogers, 1994). In the present study, cookies were sealed in plastic
bags and stored in an airtight container in a room with constant
relative humidity and temperature. An estimate of hardness was
derived from the peak force of the forcedisplacement chart
calculated from the three-point snap test (Gaines, 1991). Table 4
shows the average of maximum snap force for cookies made from
different our types. The force required to break the cookie was
similar for cookies made from different our types.

The method of continuous monitoring of cookie expansion used

in this experiment was simple, low cost and effective. The use of
digital imaging to measure cookie diameter during baking
demonstrated that cookies made with our that had faster spread
rate reached a larger nal diameter. English grade III ours 2 and 4
produced the best cookie compared to the other four ours in terms
of appreciable spread rate during baking, larger nal diameter and
smaller shrinkage during cooling (only for cookie made from
English grade III our 2). The cookie dough showed pseudo-plastic
behaviour since viscosity decreased with increasing strain rate for
all doughs made from different our types. The plain our doughs
showed the highest slope for extensional viscosity/biaxial strain
rate curve, indicating the most shear-thinning behaviour, while this
rate was the lowest for Odlums our doughs. The biaxial extension
viscosity test was able to discriminate between the different ours.
However, viscosity measurements in this study could not predict
the baking performance and the nal diameter of cookies.

Acknowledgments
This work was funded by the Irish Department of Agriculture
through the Food Institutional Research Measure (FIRM).

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