INFLUENCE OF 8 FLOURS ON THE HARDNESS OF COMMERCIAL COOKIES AND CRACKERS

Eight soft red winter wheats were commercially milled into straight-gr ade flours and shipped to five large baking companies. The companies u sed proprietary commercial formulations to produce wire-cut and rotary -molded cookies and chemically leavened crackers from each flour. All commercial products were evaluated for hardness at our laboratory. Har dness values were compared relative to the flours used and the baking company that produced the cookies and crackers. The relative contribut ion of each flour to product hardness across products and companies wa s remarkably consistent considering differences among commercial produ cts. For all three products, the highest protein flours consistently p roduced the hardest products. Product hardness was relatively inconsis tent in products made from flours with intermediate protein levels. Da ta show that the contribution to product hardness of various soft whea t flours is a strong quality attribute, especially when associated wit h elevated protein concentration. Thus, the texture of several soft wh eat products of one company and the texture of products from many comp anies could be influenced by one flour.