Effect of fat-type on cookie dough and cookie quality

Effect of four different fat types on the rheology of the cookie dough and subsequently their effect on the quality of cookies were studied. The dough containing sunflower oil had the least initial farinograph consistency while that containing the bakery fat (‘marvo’) had the most consistency. Observation of the response of the above two cookies doughs to farinograph mixing showed that the one containing the oil showed more resistance to mixing while the other containing the bakery fat decreased in its consistency denoting the softer nature of the later. The cookies containing the oil had relatively higher spread value than the others. While the cookies containing the non-emulsified hydrogenated fat (‘dalda’) had the least spread. Studies also showed that the cookies containing the oil started to spread earlier and continued to spread for a longer time. Cookies containing oil had relatively harder texture and probably so because of the poor entrapment of air during creaming. However, the quality of these cookies was significantly improved by including 0.5% sodium steroyl lactylate in the formulation.