Crackers ……………………………

A wide variety of successful crackers from Europe, USA and Asia………………..

Cracker baking

A wide range of products characterised by crispy, open texture and savoury flavours. Crackers include soda and saltine crackers, cream crackers, snack crackers, water biscuits, puff biscuits, maltkist (sugar topped cracker), “TUC” type, “Ritz” type, vegetable crackers.

In general crackers may have some of the following features which influence the baking process:

Doughs which are leavened and fermented with ingredients such as yeast, ammonia and sodium bicarbonate
Doughs generally have a high water content (15 – 25%)
Cracker doughs are laminated, (the dough sheet is made up from multiple thin layers)
Cracker doughs spring or lift in the first part of the oven to achieve the open, flaky texture. This requires humidity and high heat input.
Some crackers are baked in strips or complete sheets and broken into individual products after baking
Some crackers require a colour contrast between dark blisters and a pale background colour
Traditional English crackers such as cream crackers and water biscuits are normally baked on light wire-mesh bands
Traditional American crackers, such as soda or saltine are baked on heavy mesh oven bands which are pre-heated to transfer heat rapidly by conduction into the dough pieces
Crackers are baked to low moisture contents (1.5% – 2.5%), which requires a high energy input