When producing extra crispy and crunchy cookies and crackers, the oven proves to be a crucible. The bake of any product is going to determine final texture and lift. With a crispy texture, there’s a fine line between just right and burned. Bakers must employ the appropriate heat and temperature curve in order to achieve the optimal bake for these products.  

While setting the bake profile is the most critical, something as simple as product placement on the belt can have a major impact on bake efficiency. This can be tricky to get right with thin, crispy products. 

“A challenge that bakers may face specifically with lightweight crispy cookies under 5 grams is product placement,” said Jessica Davis, account manager, baked products and food extrusion, Baker Perkins. “The reason for this is that typically, these products are run at high speeds to achieve acceptable profitable production rates for the bakery. With these higher speeds, the lighter cookies suffer in terms of ideal placement arrangement on the band or belt.”

Without even product spacing on the oven belt, heat distribution will be uneven, ultimately resulting in an uneven bake. This potentially requires spacing product on the belt evenly, not just horizontally but also longitudinally. Not only does this improve the consistency of the bake because product is evenly spaced throughout, but it also can save energy. 

“In one customer’s facility, I was able to increase belt loading by 40% while using the same bake time,” explained Ken Zvoncheck, director, process technology at Reading Bakery Systems (RBS). “I increased the forming system to maximize belt loading, and in doing so they were able to achieve 40% increased production with no additional energy usage. There’s a lot of low-hanging fruit like this in bakeries.” 

The oven removes the moisture from the final product, which as Hogan pointed out is especially critical for crispy products. 

“The baking profile — or temperature and time — across all the zones is critical to obtain the required moisture level,” he explained. “Most of the water will be removed in the middle zones. You want to have the moisture level low in the last zones so you can focus on obtaining the desired color.” 

Understanding what needs to happen in each zone of the oven for a crispy product will help determine how the bake profile and humidity should be set. For example, cookies need to spread before structure is formed, Hogan said. With thinner cookies, adequate spread must be achieved in the first zones. 

“Initially a lower oven temperature is required that provides adequate time for the fats to effectively melt before the structure is formed,” he said. 

However, for both cookies and crackers, too much air flow or humidity in the front zones of the ovens will prevent the outside from crisping up. Lipika Mandal, food technologist, Spooner Vicars, a Middleby Bakery company, explained that humidity management becomes critical in the oven. 

“There are two important things happening,” she said. “First, mainly for crusty product, the steam condensation will allow product growth, open scoring and a shiny crust. As condensation is an exothermic reaction, it will also bring heat to the product. Second is the humidity rate inside the baking chamber. The humidity rate has an effect on the amount of water that evaporates from the product. This has a direct impact on the product’s crust thickness and crispiness as well as shelf life.” 

Optimal convective airflow will also either make or break a crispy cookie or cracker.  

“Too much air at the beginning of the oven can create a moisture barrier on the outside of the product that prevents the moisture in the center from being removed,” Davis said. “However, if the convective air flow is too low, then the desired crispy texture will not be achieved.” 

When it comes to bake profile, Zvoncheck pointed out that traditional cookies and crackers use completely different bake profiles. A traditional cracker needs a bell curve, where temperatures start low, rise and then taper off again. Cookies typically start low for that spread and then go high to finish. This can change, however, when trying to achieve a crispy texture. 

“In the case of a bite-size, thin cracker that we want to be crispy, we want to run a high to low profile, putting a large amount of energy in the first part because we don’t want it to lift; we want the hard crispy cracker,” he said. “Cookie thins we might run high to low temperature, but a traditional cookie I might choose a low temperature to lift the cookie and spread it followed by more intense heat to finish the baking and coloring.” 

Both bake temperature and air movement throughout the oven will have the greatest impact on moisture removal from the products. But exhaust settings on the oven also provide bakers an opportunity to get the optimal bake and save energy. By adjusting the exhaust in certain zones of the oven, bakers can ensure they aren’t losing critical heat that should be going into the product to the atmosphere. 

“If all the exhaust zones are set at 100% open, that is like running the oven with the roof off,” Zvoncheck explained. “By adjusting the oven profile and exhaust in each zone you can heat that oven more efficiently.”

Historically, these products have also been baked over open flame in direct gas-fired (DGF) ovens. Convection heat, however, more efficiently removes moisture from products, an added benefit when producing extra crispy products. 

“Convection is the most efficient way to remove moisture from a product,” Zvoncheck said. “Pound for pound, it will be more efficient to bake product on a convection zone rather than DGF alone.” 

RBS introduced its Emithermic XE Oven last year to provide bakers this level of efficiency in their bake for cookies and crackers. The oven bakes via electric radiant heat elements and high radiant Thermatec panels, eliminating ribbon burners and improving on energy costs and emissions. 

The Emithermic XE Oven also delivers a more balanced heat to the product and imparts the high radiant heat required to develop the flavor and texture of the crackers. The oven was designed to be easier to use, clean and maintain while also improving the bake profile. 

Once moisture is removed from product in those middle zones, the final zone is all about getting the final color of the product right. It can be easy at this point in the process to over-color the finished product, especially in the case of crackers, Davis said. 

“Depending on the type of cracker, we may recommend a hybrid oven with the high circulation convective air at the beginning of the oven and the recirculated convective air toward the end,” she said. “This not only helps to achieve the optimum coloring with the finished cracker product but also reduces the baker’s overall operating cost.” 

With so much happening in the oven over so many zones, control is of the utmost importance. This is where the computer controls and HMIs associated with automation can come into play. 

“In order to consistently achieve the desired crunch in the finished product, it is imperative for bakers to have complete control over the baking profile throughout the entire length of the oven,” Davis said. “This requires an oven that can precisely vary the amount of convective and radiant heat in each zone. Once the optimized baking profile to produce the desired crunch is achieved, bakers will want to store and repeat this recipe to maintain consistency of the finished product between different shifts and operators.”

Zvoncheck noted that bakers using this level of convection automation must train their operators to set the oven and leave it alone. The main focus should be to ensure consistent dough weights are entering the oven for maximum quality. 

“Unless there is some major issue, mechanical or electrical, the system should work consistently,” he said. “All our lines are touchscreen and user-friendly, so if the line is optimized there are only minor adjustments that need to be made. It can take time for operators to get used to simply monitoring the line.” 

With automation at the helm, bakers can find the control they need for a signature snap whether in a cookie or a cracker.

This article is an excerpt from the March 2024 issue of Baking & Snack. To read the entire feature on Cookie & Cracker Processing, click here.