EFFECT OF FORMULA WATER-CONTENT ON THE SPREAD OF SUGAR-SNAP COOKIES

Sugar-snap cookie doughs prepared with a commercial soft wheat flour a nd standard formula water (25%, fwb) produced baked cookies with a mea n diameter of 186 mm. Increasing the formula water to 30% resulted in cookies with a mean diameter of 187 mm and decreasing the formula wate r to 20% resulted in cookies with a mean diameter of 185 mm. A similar effect was seen when the formula water in cookie doughs prepared with the pure hard red spring cultivar Butte 86 or the pure soft white win ter club cultivar Paha was varied. Thus, varying the formula water in cookie dough appeared to have little or no effect on final cookie diam eter. Formula water content, however, did affect cookie dough spread r ate and set time during baking. Increasing the formula water caused th e spread rate to increase but shortened the set time. As a result, fin al cookie diameter was essentially unchanged.