Miller Magazine Issue: 141 September 2021

80 ARTICLE MILLER / september 2021 1-Introduction Waffles are flat fine bakery products, which are baked between two hot iron plates (waffle iron) or within a spe- cific waffle machine. There exist many different varieties of this baked good, which are different in structure and texture, e.g. flat, soft or cross waffles. Flat waffles are a dry pastry with a porous structure, which is mainly due to evaporating water. Waffles are used for different purposes (rolled or casted ice-cream cones), in layers incorporated in sweets (flat waffle, waf- fle sticks) or also as waffle sheathing for a chocolate fill- ing (hollow waffle). Waffle recipes are quite simple and do not need many ingredients, whereas besides water, flour is the main component. Also milk, sugar, salt, baking improver and/ or fat may be added. Most waffle-masses are fluid and pumpable. The flour used should be weak, with low pro- tein and wet gluten content, in order to obtain a com- plete structure of the waffle sheet. The water absorp- tion rate of waffle flours should be low, in order to obtain already with a small water addition a well pumpable dough, which allows for a wide application of water as baking agent (water steam proving). Within the industrial production the waffle mass is pumped through a tubing system. During that process mechanical energy is imposed into the mass, which leads to a viscosity change if gluten protein is present. The so called gluten aggregation can influence the dos- ing, and thus leads to the fact that waffle forms are not filled properly, or that the baked product shows unwant- ed effects like cracks. It is also possible that clots are formed, which lead to a blockage of the dosing dies. A quick and reliable method for characterizing the most main flour parameters (wet gluten, protein content, A quick and reliable method for characterizing the most main flour parameters is of great importance for the producers of waffle products. The evaluation of flours with a Brabender GlutoPeak, and the GlutoPeak evaluation ”Rapid Flour Check” provide such a method, which implements a quick characterization of flours by mixing a small quantity of flour and water within a controlled environment, in order to analyse and monitor the gluten devel- opment within that dough. As an onward development there exists now the “Low Protein Check” (LPC)-method, which is specifically designed for properties of low protein flours. Application of the Brabender GlutoPeak for quick characterization of waffle flours Markus Löns Brabender GmbH & Co. KG Zuleyka Rodriguez Gutierrez Bühler Food Equipment GmbH