Effect of processing parameters and principal ingredients on quality of sugar snap cookies: a response surface approach.

Effects of processing parameters such as creaming time, dough mixing time, cookie thickness, baking temperature, time and principal ingredients viz. sugar, fat and water on quality of sugar snap cookies were investigated using the Response Surface Methodology. Shorter mixing time (100 s) along with higher creaming time (400 s) was desirable for producing softer cookies with tender bite and higher spread factor. Cookie baked at 190 °C had superior quality in terms of hardness and spread factor as compared with those baked either at lower or at higher temperature. At lower baking temperature, hardness of cookie increased as the baking time was decreased below 14 min. Hardness also increased significantly with increase in water content at all levels of sugar concentration in the formula. Optimum cookie quality was obtained with creaming time of 400 s and mixing time 100 s to make cookie dough containing 59.65% sugar, 46.68% fat and 14% water. Cookie thickness 11 mm, baking temperature 190 °C and baking time of 16 min 30 s resulted in best cookies.