Effects of water on the rheological characteristics of biscuit dough and quality of biscuits

Abstract

 The influence of water on the rheological characteristics of biscuit dough and quality of biscuits was studied. A variation of even 1% in water content considerably changed the various rheological characteristics of biscuit dough. Increasing water content by 3% significantly increased the compliance from 32.6% to 45.6%, and decreased the extrusion time from 100 s to 34 s, the apparent biaxial extensional viscosity from 3.06×10⁵ Pas to 1.5×10⁵ Pas, and the consistency from 943 Ns to 620 Ns for dough based on weak wheat flour. The elastic recovery of biscuit dough increased significantly from 0.425 mm to 0.535 mm. Dough became more cohesive and adhesive with increasing water content, whilst biscuits became harder, as indicated by increases in density, breaking strength and compression strength.