Facts About Cookie Baking  Anyone, with commonsense and understanding of the baking process, can easily recognize and correct any shortcoming. Whether it is mixing, creaming, whipping, or folding, the goals are to:
Fat is the first ingredient affected by oven heat. As it melts, it coats egg proteins, starches, and a few gluten strands that happen to develop during mixing. This action prevents structure building and, thereby, contributes to tenderness. Different fats melt at different temperature. Generally, the earlier a fat melts, the better it is a tenderizer because it has more time to interfere with structure formation. Butter is a good tenderizer because it has the lowest melting point of all fats. It melts at 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit, same as our body temperature. Liquid oils tenderize more than solid fats do. They are ready to interfere with structure formation right at the mixing stage. As fat melts, it releases air and moisture that has been trapped during the mixing stage, contributing to the rise of a cookie dough. In a preheated oven, the released moisture turns into steam. Steam and air expand as internal temperature of cookie dough or batter increases. In so doing, they push on the walls of surrounding air cells, increasing both size and volume of cookies. Fats with a high melting point have better leavening effect. It is so because air and steam start to expand at about the same time as cell walls are firm enough to hold shape. Simultaneously, heat also destroy microorganisms such as yeast, bacteria, viruses, and other pathogenic agents. All this happens before internal temperature of dough or batter reaches 170 degrees Fahrenheit or 75 degrees Celsius.  Meanwhile, starch absorbs any remaining available moisture, swells up, and contributes to structure formation. This happens at about 105 degrees Fahrenheit, and is not likely to complete until temperature of dough reaches 200 degrees F., provided that there is sufficient moisture. Proteins, on the other hand, start to coagulate at about 140 degrees Fahrenheit. Protein coagulation is similar to what happens to egg when it is cooked. Three changes happen at this stage,
When surface temperature reaches 300 degrees Fahrenheit, sugar is broken down resulting in a brown color and desirable baked flavor. This stage is known as either caramelization. Caramelization is often compared to Maillard browning. Actually, the latter is a result of the inevitable interaction between proteins and sugar. Remove homemade cookies from the oven before they are baked to perfection to accommodate carryover baking. Cookies will continue to bake until their internal temperature is the same as room temperature. During the cooling period, proteins and starch bond and solidify, making cookies firmer and more rigid. After cooling is completed, storage encourages sugar to recrystallize on crust of low moisture cookies, giving them a desirable crunchy texture. Starch, on the other hand, continues to bond and solidify, leading eventually to staling.
REFERENCE FIGONI, P. 2004. How Baking Works - Exploring the Fundamentals of Baking Science. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Hoboken, New Jersey
|
