Cookies & Cakes

Cookies and cakes are always a delicious treat for any occasion. Both of course involve using sugar and the creaming method which aids in creating the volume and texture desired.

• Creaming Method
  Creaming butter (or shortening) and sugar together is a part of baking cookies and cakes. This action is known as creaming. When shortening and sugar are creamed together, sugar crystals become interspersed among the fat molecules. By incorporating air into the fat, sugar helps promote lightness in these recipes.
  
  On the face of sugar's irregular crystals, air becomes trapped. When sugar is mixed with fat, this air becomes incorporated as very small air cells. During baking, the air cells expand when filled with carbon dioxide and other gases from the leavening agents, resulting in a smooth, stable consistency.
  
  The temperature and ratio of the ingredients, as well as the rate of air incorporation, are key to achieving success during creaming (room temperature ingredients are recommended).
  
  After creaming occurs, the remaining liquid and dry ingredients are incorporated into the batter in alternate stages. Once the batter goes in the oven, the viscosity soon begins to decrease. At about 185°-195°F, this process then reverses as the starch from the flour gelatinizes and hydrates with a sharp increase in viscosity.
  
  While the starch gelatinizes, it sets and forms the structure of the cake. Simultaneously, maximum carbon dioxide production occurs. Sugar functions to delay this starch swelling to about the same time as the maximum carbon dioxide production is reached, so the carbon dioxide will be entrapped within the batter to leaven the cake and give the characteristic cake structure.¹
  
  Foam type cakes like angel food cake, sponge or chiffon are typical when performing whipping methods with sugar.
  
  Check out some of our cake recipes for your next occasion.
  

TIPS: When baking fat-based cakes, we recommend the fat used to prepare the cake to be at room temperature.

• Cookies
  Cookies, like cakes, are chemically leavened with baking soda or baking powder. Cookies, however, have more sugar and fat and less water proportionately. In cookies, sugar introduces air into the batter during the creaming process. Approximately half the sugar remains undissolved at the end of mixing. When the cookie dough enters the oven, the temperature causes the fat to melt and the dough to become more fluid. The undissolved sugar dissolves as the temperature increases and the sugar solution increases in volume. This leads to more fluid dough, allowing the cookies to spread during baking.
  
  Sugar also helps produce the appealing surface cracking of some cookies, such as gingersnaps. It also influences cookies in the following ways:
  
  
• Sweetness - provides a clean sweet taste
• Flavor- Light and brown sugars provide flavor, which is derived from the molasses portion. The darker the brown sugar, the stronger the flavor
• Control of cookie spread – Influenced by two factors: the amount of sugar and granulation size
• Tenderness – Sugar competes with starch molecules and proteins for the liquid component of the dough, which prevents the overdevelopment of gluten and slows down the gelatinization of starches
• Crust and color – Sugar contributes to color due to the caramelization and Maillard reactions during baking. In cookies manufactured with soft brown sugars, the presence of molasses influences color
• Humectancy – is attributable to the presence of reducing the sugars, dextrose and fructose in molasses. These sugars tend to retain water in the cookie

There's always room for another cookie recipe. Here are some unique recipes.

1. 60018-5803, G. J. P., Manager, Specialty Ingredient Development, Domino Sugar Corp. ,. Des Plaines, IL. (1995). Sugar and its use in bakery foods. Sugar and Its Use in Bakery Goods, XVII(6).