How can I bake a clear and beautiful pattern?
Before giving an answer, I must say something about the extensibility of biscuit dough.
The ductility of biscuit dough determines the ductility of biscuit during baking. The better the ductility, the easier it is to stretch and expand when baking, and the worse the ductility, the easier it is to keep the original shape when baking.
After knowing this truth, what we have to do is very simple: reducing the ductility of cookie dough can ensure that the patterns of cookies will not disappear during baking.
Ok, let's look at the factors that affect the ductility of biscuits:
First, the butter is sent out. The higher the butter is sent, the better the ductility of the dough. Therefore, sending butter completely can only make cookie dough develop in the direction of faster pattern disappearance-some students asked, is the pattern really not so easy to disappear after I desperately send butter? I will explain this question next).
Second, the gluten of flour. The higher the gluten of flour, the worse the ductility of dough. Therefore, cookies made of high-gluten flour are easier to keep the pattern clear. But using high flour is not our goal. My cookies are made of low flour. Are the patterns as clear as they are? Want to know the answer? Continue reading:)
Third, the moisture content of dough. The higher the water content, the better the ductility. So look at your cookie dough. Is it dry or wet? Too wet dough patterns will disappear, and too dry dough patterns will be difficult to extrude, both of which are not desirable.
Fourth, the baking temperature. The higher the temperature, the worse the ductility. So cookies are usually baked at 190 -200 degrees, and the temperature should not be too low.
You must be confused when you see this 1, 2, 3, 4-except butter, other points were actually determined when I got a formula. The same recipe, flour type, moisture content and baking temperature are all the same, but why can some people bake beautiful cookies with the same recipe, but the pattern of my cookies is never clear? !
Then, the next step is the most critical and easily overlooked question-is your powdered sugar qualified?
Never ignore the role of sugar in cookies!
Sugar plays an important role in cookies: its properties are very special. The thicker the sugar, the better the ductility of the dough. On the contrary, the thinner the sugar, the worse the ductility of the dough. When other conditions are determined, the use of sugar directly determines the ductility of dough.
You must have noticed. In the recipe of biscuits, fine sugar and powdered sugar exist at the same time, which is to balance the ductility of biscuits. Only the biscuits with powdered sugar are too plastic, and the biscuits will not be crisp enough; However, cookies without sugar powder are too plastic and the pattern is not easy to form.
At this time, if you don't pay attention to this little sugar powder, but use fine sugar instead, or use sugar powder with poor quality and not fine enough particles (I know many students grind sugar into sugar powder by themselves with a home grinder), then there is no need to doubt at all-your cookie pattern disappears because of your carelessness.
This also explains why the pattern of biscuits will become clearer when the butter is sent for a long time-because the fine sugar dissolves for a long time and plays the role of powdered sugar, the ductility of dough is reduced to a certain extent. However, it should be noted that although this method can ensure that the pattern does not disappear, it is doomed to fail to obtain cookies with very clear patterns, because don't forget that excessive butter will also increase the ductility of the dough, so the ductility of the dough obtained will not be too low.