GB2258383A - Improvements in or relating to dough - Google Patents

Abstract

A refrigerated cookie dough composition is disclosed which has low water activity and also includes edible bits containing colouring agents such as candy coated chocolates to form a product which is substantially free of colour bleed after 90 days of refrigerated storage. The dough compositions of the present invention has a water activity no greater than about 0.75.

Description

DESCRIPTION OF INVENTION "IMPROVEMENTS IN OR RELATING TO DOUGH" THIS INVENTION relates broadly to refrigerated doughs, and methods of making the same. In particular, it relates to a novel shelf-stable refrigerated cookie dough composition having low water activity containing colour agent-containing edible food particles, or other edible particles which are subject to degradation when exposed to a moist environment.

In the Specification the term "cookie" is used in the American sense, and thus means "biscuit" or "sweet biscuit" or "cake".

Although many shelf-stable commercially manufactured cookies are available to the public, many consumers prefer the aroma and flavour of freshly baked cookies. Baking cookies requires selecting a recipe, assembling the ingredients, measuring the ingredients, mixing the ingredients in the manner specified in the recipe, placing the dough in a baking utensil and baking the dough to form cookies. Baking cookies is very time consuming, and can be difficult. The food industry has developed many ready-to-bake products which eliminate the time consuming steps of measuring and mixing ingredients.

One class of products which are currently available to the public are ready-to-bake refrigerated cookie doughs which can be removed from the packaging, cut into pieces, and baked.

Refrigerated cookie doughs must not only form appetizing cookies upon baking, but must not degrade in quality while the dough is in refrigerated storage. At the present time, the known shelf-stable refrigerated doughs do not incorporate edible particles which contain colour agents. Such particles will be termed "colour agentcontaining particles". Refrigerated cookie doughs containing chocolate chips and raisins are known, however.

Such doughs tend to have a high fat content to prevent degradation of the chocolate or other edible particles.

It has been found that the colouring in hard sweets or candy and in the coating of candy coated chocolates bleeds into cookie doughs during storage, causing a reduction in the quality of the product which is unacceptable to consumers. Also, some particles absorb moisture in the dough which can reduce the quality of the edible particles. An example would be discoloration of a candy due to exposure to moisture. In the case of nuts, moisture causes the nuts to soften and lose their desirable organoleptic properties. If, after combining a conventional cookie dough composition with colour agent-containing edible bits for example, the dough is not baked immediately, the colour bleeds into the dough and is unacceptable to the consumer.

Coloured candies, candy coated chocolates and colour-agent containing fat based flavour particles, which are suitable for addition to cookie dough include several colour agents which are known to bleed into surrounding dough upon exposure to moisture. This phenomena is referred to in the art as "colour bleed." Among the agents responsible for colour bleed are: water soluble dye pigments and colour lakes. Colour lakes are generally less soluble in water as compared to dye pigments. US-A 4,167,422 discloses organic dye pigment lakes which are representative of colour lakes used to colour foods. Dye pigments as well as colour lakes are known to dissolve in the water in the dough, and cause colour bleed to occur during refrigerated storage.

The problem of preventing pigment migration from added edible particles in dough during the baking process is not new. US-A-4,732,767 describes a method of reducing chip bleed in flavour-chip containing baked goods which includes adding to the dough a selected emulsifier which is predominantly crystalline at room temperature to form a stable dough emulsion. The emulsifier ties up the oil and syrup phases of the dough in a stable emulsion, so that the oil and syrup phases are less available to solubilize the chip components. US-A-4732767, Col. 3, lines 27-29.

According to this invention there is provided a refrigerated cookie dough composition comprising a cookie dough suitable for refrigerated storage, wherein the cookie dough has a free water activity no greater than 0.75; and a quantity of edible particles combined with said cookie dough said edible particles being subject to degradation when exposed to a moist environment, wherein the edible particles are substantially free of degradation after storage at about 70C (45 degrees Fahrenheit) for about 90 days.

Preferably the edible particles are colour agentcontaining particles and the said dough is substantially free of colour bleed after said storage.

Preferably the dough comprises sucrose and other sugar(s) and the sucrose/other sugar ratio of the dough is between about 0.85:1 about 5.13:1.

Conveniently the edible particles contain at least one colour agent selected from the group consisting of colour lakes and colour pigments.

Advantageously the edible particles are selected from the group consisting of candy coated chocolates, hard candy, confections and colour agent-containing fat-based flavour particles.

According to another aspect of this invention there is provided a method of forming a refrigerated cookie dough suitable for combining with colour agent-containing edible particles, the method comprising combining a quantity of sugar, oil and shortening to form a shortening slurry; forming a sugar slurry comprising the steps of combining substantially all of the water to be added to said dough composition with an agent capable of substantially saturating the water, forming a saturated water solution; and combining the saturated water solution with at least one sugar other than sucrose; mixing together the shortening slurry and the sugar slurry to form a combined slurry; forming a dry premix; and mixing together the combined slurry and the dry premix, forming a refrigerated dough composition having a water activity of no greater than 0.75.

The method may further comprise the step of adding flavouring after saturating the water and before combining the saturated water solution with said agent.

Preferably the dry premix comprises flour, soda, salt, egg yolk solids, albumin and enrichment.

Preferably the material capable of saturating the water is sucrose.

Conveniently the sugar other than sucrose is selected from the group consisting of fructose, dextrose and glycerol.

Preferably the selected sugar is in the form of molasses, glycerine, corn syrup and/or brown sugar.

The method may further comprise the step of adding a quantity colour agent-containing edible particles after the step of forming the dough.

Preferably the edible particles contain at least one colour agent selected from the group consisting of dye pigments and colour lakes and the resulting dough is substantially free of colour bleed at a storage temperature of about 4.4 (45 degrees Fahrenheit) for about 90 days.

The invention also provides a method of forming a cookie dough suitable for combining with edible particles and for storage under refrigerated conditions, the method comprising combining together sugar and shortening; saturating substantially an entire amount of water with sucrose; combining the saturated water with at least one sugar other than sucrose to form a sugar solution wherein a sucrose to other sugar ratio is maintained between about 0.85 and about 5.13; combining the sugar solution with the combined sugar and shortening; and adding to the above a dry premix, to form a dough having an Aw value no greater than 0.75.

The invention will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawing which is a graph of Colour Bleed v. Storage Time for a conventional cookie dough combined with candy coated chocolates, and for a dough composition of the present invention combined with candy coated chocolates at 70C.

The present invention provides a cookie dough composition adapted to contain edible particles which are substantially free of degradation after about 90 days under refrigerated storage conditions.

"Water activity", or "free water activity" or "free water value", hereinafter referred to as Aw, for purposes of this disclosure is the ratio of the fugacity of the dough composition being measured over the fugacity of pure water. An Aw value of 1 would indicate that the composition has 100% free water.

"Fugacity" is defined as the escaping tendency of a substance in a heterogeneous mixture which enables a chemical equilibrium to respond to altered conditions.

"Fugacity" of a dough can be measured in a so-called water meter. A 5 to 10 grams sample of dough is placed in a closed temperature controlled chamber. When equilibrium has been reached the water vapour in the head space above the sample is measured. This is achieved by determining the refractive index of the gas phase and comparing it to a standard to determine the water vapour content. This measurement is divided by a similar measurement of a sample of water at the same temperature to calculate the "water activity" or Aw In other words the water activity is measured as the equilibrium relative humidity, that is to say the percent relative humidity of an atmosphere in contact with a product at the equilibrium water content.

Again in other words, water activity is the ratio of the partial pressure of water in the head space of a product, at equilibrium, to the vapour pressure of pure water at the same temperature. Reference may be made to "Fundamentals of Food Process Engineering" by Romeo T. Toledo for further information concerning "water activity".

It was surprisingly discovered that by lowering the Aw value of a dough composition to 0.75 or below, that colour agent-containing edible particles, or other particles that are subject to degradation in a moist environment, can be combined with the dough and stored under refrigerated conditions for at least 90 days without significant colour bleed in the dough or other degradation of the particles.

It was surprisingly discovered that by lowering the water activity of a refrigerated dough composition to no greater than 0.75, that the interaction between the dough and the colour agents in coloured edible particles is kept to a minimum, preventing colour bleed from coloured sweets or candies or other particles having a coloured coating incorporated in the dough. It has also been found that doughs of the present invention also advantageously preserve the quality of other types of edible particles which are moisture sensitive such as nuts and chocolate bits, for example.

Dough compositions of the present invention have a free water value of no greater than 0.75. The composition is suitable for combining with a wide variety of colour agent-containing edible particles or other edible particles such as hard sweets or candies, chocolates with a hard coloured coating such as chocolate morsels, coloured toffee with a chocolate-based coating, coloured sugar crystals, coloured white chocolate morsels and the like including colour agent-containing fat-based flavour particles. Some of the above-mentioned edible particles contain at least one colour agent. The colour agents have some tendency to bleed colour into the surrounding dough when the particles are incorporated in conventional cookie doughs and when stored under refrigerated conditions prior to cooking.

What is meant by "refrigerated storage" is storage at temperatures between about 4.5 and 100C (40 and about 50 degrees Fahrenheit) with a typical storage temperature of about 70C (45 degrees Fahrenheit).

Some edible particles such as chocolate morsels and hard sweets or candies, for example, have a tendency to absorb moisture during storage, losing desirable organoleptic properties. In particular, the outer surfaces of chocolate morsels absorb moisture and become white and chalky in appearance. The resulting mouth feel and flavour is undesirable to consumers. It has been found that in using a dough of the present invention such particles do not degrade during refrigerated storage.

When the edible particles are candy coated confections, such as coated chocolates the colour agents contained in the outer coating layer are known to bleed into the dough, causing colour streaking. This streaking is referred to in the trade as "colour bleed" and is highly undesirable to consumers. When coated or coloured fondants such as hard candy particles are combined with conventional refrigerated dough compositions, which have A, values significantly above 0.75, colour bleed becomes pronounced in as little as one day after the commencement of refrigerated storage.

A representative conventional dough composition having an A, value above about 0.75 is provided below: Conventional Dough Composition Ingredient Weight Percent sugar 24.319 flour 28.389 soda 0.490 salt 0.490 egg yolk solids 0.786 albumen 0.890 enrichment 0.004 shortening 13.879 oil 1.542 water 10.302 molasses 2.140 vanilla 0.103 candy pieces 16.666 100.000 The ratio of sucrose to other sugar in this formulation is: 35.5:1. This ratio assumes that molasses is 35 percent by weight sucrose and 33 percent by weight other sugar. The water activity of the above conventional dough formulation is about 0.8 Aw, as measured by means known to persons skilled in the art.

"Colour agents" for purposes of this disclosure are compounds which impart colour to food. Examples include dye pigments and colour lakes.

A dough composition of the present invention may include 20-50% flour, 20-40t total sugar, 12-25t shortening, 0-10t added water, minor amounts of leaveners, salt, egg albumin, egg yolk solids and enrichment. A combination of molasses, corn syrup, flavouring and sucrose-saturated water may be included in a water slurry which when combined with granular sugar, the flour, leaveners, egg solids, salt, shortening, and enrichment forms a dough composition which has an Aw value of 0.75 or below.

As will become clear, in this invention the lowering the A, value of the dough composition is effectively accomplished by combining substantially all of the water to be added to the dough with an agent capable of saturating the water. In other words, an agent that can form a saturated solution with water is added to the water to form such a saturated solution. This is believed to aid in lowering the A, value of the dough. It is believed that in the saturated solution the water molecules are "bound".

Although the mechanism of "binding" the water molecules is not precisely understood, it is believed that hydrogen bonding between the water molecules and the agent prevents the water molecules from later interacting with the colour agents contained in the edible particles in the dough composition, or from otherwise causing the particles to degrade.

A preferred method of binding the water molecules includes adding enough sucrose to completely saturate the water at a temperature of about 4.50 (40 degrees Fahrenheit) prior to addition of the dry ingredients. In a preferred dough composition, the weight ratio of sugar to water required for saturation at the stated temperature of 4.5 (40 degrees Fahrenheit) is about 1.835:1. A preferred dough composition formed according to a preferred method of the present invention includes sucrose as a preferred agent for binding the water to be added into the dough composition.

According to a preferred method, prior to forming the saturated sucrose solution, the majority of the sucrose used in the dough composition is put in a mixer at a temperature of between about 4.5 to 100C (40 to 50 degrees Fahrenheit). It is to be understood that all of the sucrose, except that needed to make the saturate solution, is put in the mixer. Next, a shortening slurry is made by combining a quantity of liquid oil and a quantity of solid shortening, both collectively referred to as "shortening" at a temperature of about 320 (89 degrees Fahrenheit) and the shortening slurry is added to the mixer. The shortening slurry is mixed with the sucrose in the mixer.

"Shortening" for purposes of this disclosure includes unsaturated oils such as vegetable oil, olive oil, safflower oil, coconut oil, palm oil and sunflower oil, for example which are a liquid at room temperature, and also saturated oils such as butter, lard, animal fat and solid vegetable fats which are substantially solid at room temperature.

Next, a sugar slurry is formed by making a saturated solution with the sucrose kept for that purpose and combining the saturated solution with at least one additional sugar other than sucrose such as molasses. To the mixture flavouring is added. After blending the flavouring into the liquid solution, an additional sugar such as corn syrup is added and the mixture is blended again, forming a sugar slurry. In the preferred method, a ratio of sucrose to other sugar is maintained on the final composition between about 0.85:1 and about 5.13:1.

Maintaining this ratio is believed to lower the Aw value of the resulting dough composition to 0.75 or below. Although not precisely understood, it is believed that this A, value is responsible for preventing colour bleed in the dough during refrigerated storage, or other deterioration of food particles.

It was surprisingly discovered that saturating the water with sucrose in itself is insufficient to lower the A, value of the dough below 0.8. In a preferred embodiment, a combination of two or more sugars of differing molecular chain lengths are present in the sugar slurry in order to form a dough formulation which has an A, value at or below 0.75.

A study was conducted to compare the colour bleed characteristics of a dough composition of the present invention with the shelf life of a "conventional" dough composition as shown above. A dough formulation in accordance with the invention, as set out in Example 1 below, was made, and a quantity of coated chocolate bits were added in an amount equal to about 16.67% of the weight of the composition. The coating on the chocolate bits was a sugar-based hard coating which was coloured. Similarly, the conventional dough was made, and the same quantity of identical edible bits was added. The experiment was designed to compare "colour bleed" in dough of the present invention with "colour bleed" of conventional dough having an A, values above 0.75.

Although the measurement of "colour bleed" can be considered somewhat subjective, a comparative rating system was developed which identifies those compositions which produce results which are unacceptable to the consumer. A rating scale of 0-5 was developed which assigns a value of zero to a cookie which demonstrates no colour loss to the dough over time, while a value of 5 indicates that all colour is lost to the dough and white candy pieces remain.

A value of 1 indicates a small amount of visible bleed including a transfer of a small amount xof colour to the dough. A value of "2" indicates that obvious colour is visible in the dough. A value of "3" indicates that intense colouring around the candy pieces is present. A value of "4" indicates that white spots are visible on the candy and that intense colour is present in the dough.

The Figure presents a comparison between colour bleed in a conventional dough as compared to colour bleed characteristics of a dough of the present invention. The X axis represents time (in units of weeks) of storage and the Y axis represents the degree of colour bleed.

As shown in the Figure, the conventional dough formulation combined with coated chocolate pieces (represented by points on the graph identified as squares) exhibit unacceptable colour bleed within about a day. This dough formulation has an A, value of 0.80. Any reported bleed values exceeding "1" are considered unacceptable to the consumer. For purposes of this disclosure, the phrase "substantially free of colour bleed" includes doughs which demonstrate a maximum colour bleed value according to the above-described method of 1.

In contrast, the dough composition of the present invention (represented by points on the graph identified by short straight lines) showed substantially no colour bleed after 84 days of storage. The dough composition of the present invention used in this comparative study had an Aw value of 0.719. Although the data is not shown on the graph, colour bleed values of about 0 were also observed after 90 days of refrigerated storage.

The composition used in this experiment is set forth by way of example below: Example 1 Dough Composition Ingredient Weight Percent sucrose 11.496 SHORTENING SLURRY shortening 13.879 soybean oil 1.542 WATER SLURRY water 3.214 sucrose 6.179 molasses 1.783 vanilla 0.086 corn syrup 12.854 flour 30.528 soda 0.392 salt 0.408 egg yolk solids 0.411 albumin 0.558 enrichment 0.004 candy pieces 16.666 100.000 The above ingredients were combined by first adding sugar (minus the sucrose in the water slurry) to a mixer at 4.5 to 100 (40 to 50 degrees Fahrenheit). Next, shortening and soybean oil were heated to about 320C (89 degrees Fahrenheit) and premixed to form a shortening slurry. The shortening slurry was pumped into the mixer, and mixed with the sugar to form a shortening/sugar slurry.

A sugar slurry was next made separately by heating the water to be added to about 320C (90 degrees Fahrenheit) and adding sucrose in a sugar to water ratio of about 1.83:1 by weight to form a saturated sugar and water solution. What is meant by "saturated" for purposes of this disclosure is the maximum amount of sugar that can be dissolved in the water at about 4.50C (40 degrees Fahrenheit).

The solution was cooled to about 4.50C (40 degrees Fahrenheit). A small amount of crystal formation in the solution was present which indicated that the solution was substantially completely saturated with sucrose. Liquid molasses at 210C (70 degrees Fahrenheit) was added to the cooled saturated solution and the resulting composition was mixed. Next, vanilla which was at 210C (70 degrees Fahrenheit) was added and the composition was mixed. The stated amount of corn syrup which was also at 210C (70 degrees Fahrenheit) was then added and the slurry was mixed again, forming a sugar slurry.

The dry ingredients were premixed, and then the dry premix was added to the mixer and mixed with the other ingredients for about 45 seconds at high speed. The particular candy pieces used were candy coated chocolates.

The candy pieces were added last, and the dough was again mixed.

It was surprisingly discovered that by maintaining a sucrose to other sugar ratio of the dough composition between about 0.85:1 and about 5.13:1, that it is possible to reduce the A, value of the dough to 0.75 or below. Such A, values produce a dough composition which can be combined with colour agent-containing edible particles and stored at 45 degrees Fahrenheit for at least 90 days without noticeable colour bleed into the dough or discoloration of the candy particles.

It was further discovered that if the sugar solution is saturated to lower the Aw then the total sugar content in compositions of the present invention must include more than one type of sugar. In a preferred embodiment, sucrose, corn syrup (containing about 30% fructose and about 41% dextrose) and molasses (containing about 35% sucrose, 16.5% fructose and about 16.5% dextrose) in combination lowered the A, value of the dough to 0.75 or below. Although not precisely understood, it is believed that sucrose alone is only capable of lowering the A, value to 0.8. Other chain length sugar molecules are necessary to bring the A, value down to 0.75 or below.

A low A, dough of the present invention was combined with other edible particles such as walnuts, hard candies and coloured white chocolate chips to determine if the refrigerated products had favourable shelf-life characteristics.

The dough compositions were made and mixed with the respective edible bits and stored at 70C (45 degrees Fahrenheit) for a period of six to eight weeks.

The dough compositions containing 8% walnuts by weight maintained their initial crispness. However, some deterioration in organoleptic properties did occur with time during storage. The shelf-life performance of the walnut-containing composition of the present invention outperformed the walnut and conventional dough formulation.

The hard candy and coloured white chocolate chip compositions of the present invention showed no noticeable bleed or loss of particle shape during the ninety day period of refrigerated storage at 70C (45 degrees Fahrenheit).

Although a preferred water slurry employs the use of a mixture of sugars to lower the A, value of the dough composition, the present invention contemplates the use of any agent capable of lowering the A, value in the refrigerated cookie dough composition. One limitation on the use of compositions capable of lowering the A, value is that the agent for lowering the A, value should not adversely affect the textural and flavour characteristics of the dough. The present invention contemplates the use of a wide variety of agents such as sugars, salts, mixtures thereof and other compositions in which hydrogen bonding with the water molecules takes place, and which does not adversely affect the organoleptic properties of the cooked product.

Dough compositions of the present invention advantageously prevent undesirable phenomena such as colour bleed and a reduction in the organoleptic properties of edible particles during refrigerated storage. Although the industry demands only that refrigerated dough products exhibit acceptable shelf-life characteristics for about 90 days under refrigerated storage conditions, it was surprisingly discovered that dough compositions of the present invention when combined with colour agent-containing edible particles displayed acceptable resistance to colour bleed for a minimum of 120 days. What is meant by "acceptable shelf life characteristics" is a product which is of an acceptable quality to consumers for consumption after refrigerated storage.

In addition to a preferred formulation disclosed in Example 1, the following seven compositions of the present invention have been formulated. In each of the examples below, the shortening is 90% by weight solid shortening, and 10% by weight liquid shortening at room temperature.

Example 2 A dough composition had 24.66% sucrose, 15.213% shortening, 5% water, 0.11% vanilla, 0.96% molasses, 3.56% corn syrup, 3.56% glycerine, 30.0% flour, 0.30% soda, 0.51% salt, 0.41% egg yolk solids, 0.56% albumin, 0.004% enrichment and 16.67% of candy coated chocolate bits, all measured by weight combined according to the method outlined above. The sucrose to other sugar ratio of the composition was 5.13:1 and the A, value was 0.727.

Example 3 A dough composition had 15.1% sucrose, 19.29% shortening, 0% water, 0.11% vanilla, 1.78% molasses, 13.42% corn syrup, 0% glycerine, 31.85% flour, 0.39% soda, 0.41% salt, 0.41% egg yolk solids, 0.56% albumin, 0.004% enrichment and 16.67% of candy coated chocolate bits, all measured by weight combined according to the method outlined above. The sucrose to other sugar ratio of the composition was 1.56:1 and the A, value was 0.737.

Example 4 A dough composition had 15.76% sucrose, 16.64% shortening, 0% water, 0.11% vanilla, 1.78% molasses, 14.01% corn syrup, 0% glycerine, 33.25% flour, 0.39% soda, 0.41% salt, 0.41% egg yolk solids, 0.56% albumin, 0.004% enrichment and 16.67% of candy coated chocolate bits, all measured by weight combined according to the method outlined above. The sucrose to other sugar ratio of the composition was 1.55:1 and the A, value was 0.712.

ExamPle 5 A dough composition had 17.53% sucrose, 15.14% shortening, 0% water, 0.11% vanilla, 1.78% molasses, 16.73% corn syrup, 0% glycerine1 30.25% flour, 0.39% soda, 0.41% salt, 0.41% egg yolk solids, 0.56% albumin, 0.004% enrichment and 16.67% of candy coated chocolate bits, all measured by weight combined according to the method outlined above. The sucrose to other sugar ratio of the composition was 1.46:1 and the Aw value was 0.681.

Example 6 A dough composition had 16.86% sucrose, 17.62% shortening, 0% water, 0.11% vanilla, 1.78% molasses, 16.09% corn syrup, 0% glycerine, 29.09% flour, 0.39% soda, 0.41% salt, 0.41% egg yolk solids, 0.56% albumin, 0.004% enrichment and 16.67% of candy coated chocolate bits, all measured by weight combined according to the method outlined above. The sucrose to other sugar ratio of the composition was 1.46:1 and the A, value was 0.668.

Example 7 A dough composition had 11.03% sucrose, 17.01% shortening, 0% water, 0.11% vanilla, 2.36% molasses, 18.54% corn syrup, 0% glycerine, 32.22% flour, 0.54% soda, 0.54% salt, 0.41% egg yolk solids, 0.56% albumin, 0.004% enrichment and 16.67% of candy coated chocolate bits, all measured by weight combined according to the method outlined above. The sucrose to other sugar ratio of the composition was 0.85:1 and the Aw value was 0.671.

Example 8 A dough composition had 20.23% sucrose, 16.58% shortening, 5% water, 0.11% vanilla, 2.04% molasses, 6.5% corn syrup, 2% glycerine, 29.09% flour, 0.40% soda, 0.41% salt, 0.41% egg yolk solids, 0.56% albumin, 0.004% enrichment and 16.67% of candy coated chocolate bits, all measured by weight combined according to the method outlined above. The sugar to water ratio of the composition was 1.77:1.

In each of the above examples, the Aw value is no greater than 0.75, and it has been found that each of the resulting dough formulations are resistant to colour bleed and form suitable cookie doughs that can be combined with colour agent-containing edible particles or other edible particles and stored under refrigerated conditions for at least 90 days without significant colour bleed, or other deterioration of the particles.

Each of the sucrose/other sugar ratios calculated for Examples 1-8 assumes that: molasses is: 24% by weight water, 35% sucrose, and 33% fructose and dextrose combined; that glycerine is 30% by weight water and 70% by weight glycerol; that corn syrup is 29% by weight water, 42% fructose and 29% dextrose; and that the water content in the flour contributes a negligible amount to the A, value of the compounds of the present invention and is therefore not accounted for in computing the ratios. It also assumed that brown sugar contains 97% sucrose, about 2% water and about 1% ash.

The above examples illustrate that compositions having a sucrose to other sugar ratio between about 0.85:1 and about 5.13:1 all form suitable refrigerated dough compositions having Aw values below about 0.75. Although not precisely understood, it is believed that a mixture of different chain length sugars is necessary to bind the free water in the dough system, in part because many sugars other than sucrose remain dissolved in water at refrigerated storage temperatures.

The most preferred dough compositions of the present invention are made with sugar slurries having a preferred mixture of sucrose, fructose and dextrose. These sugars are present in the dough compositions in the examples in the form of molasses, corn syrup and granulated sugar.

When using an additive other than a sugar mixture to saturate the water, it may be necessary to vary the ratio of additive to water somewhat in order to "bind" all of the available water.

A study was conducted to compare the A, values and sucrose/other sugar ratio of the compositions of present invention to the respective A, values and sucrose/other sugar ratio of the prior art.

It was surprisingly discovered that by maintaining a sucrose to other sugar ratio within a range of 0.85:1 to 5.13:1 that refrigerated dough products containing colour agents were highly resistant to colour bleed under refrigerated storage conditions after a period of 90 days.

The dough composition of the present invention not only has excellent shelf life properties under refrigerated storage conditions, but the problems of either a reduction in dough quality or a reduction in edible particle quality or both are substantially eliminated by providing a composition which has low water activity. In particular, colour bleed from colour-agent containing edible particles containing dye pigments and colour lakes, for example, are substantially eliminated and also eliminated are quality problems which result from edible particles absorbing moisture.

Although the present invention has been described with reference to preferred embodiments, workers skilled in the art will recognize that changes may be made in form and detail without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

Claims (21)

WHAT IS CLAIMED IS:

1. A refrigerated cookie dough composition comprising a cookie dough suitable for refrigerated storage, wherein the cookie dough has a free water activity no greater than 0.75; and a quantity of edible particles combined with said cookie dough said edible particles being subject to degradation when exposed to a moist environment, wherein the edible particles are substantially free of degradation after storage at about 70C (45 degrees Fahrenheit) for about 90 days.

2. The composition of Claim 1 wherein the edible particles are colour agent-containing particles and wherein the said dough is substantially free of colour bleed after said storage.

3. The composition of Claim 1 or 2, wherein the dough comprises sucrose and other sugar(s), and the sucrose/other sugar ratio of the dough is between about 0.85:1 about 5.13:1.

4. The composition of Claim 1 or 2 or 3, wherein the edible particles contain at least one colour agent selected from the group consisting essentially of colour lakes and colour pigments.

5. The composition of any one of the preceding Claims wherein the edible particles are selected from the group consisting of: candy coated chocolates, hard candy, confections, and colour agent-containing fat-based flavour particles.

6. A method of forming a cookie dough suitable for combining with edible particles and for storage under refrigerated conditions, the method comprising combining a quantity of sugar, oil and shortening to form a shortening slurry; forming a sugar slurry comprising the steps of combining substantially all of the water to be added to said dough composition with an agent capable of substantially saturating the water, to form a saturated water solution; and combining the saturated water solution with at least one sugar other than sucrose; mixing together the shortening slurry and the sugar slurry to form a combined slurry; forming a dry premix; and mixing together the combined slurry and the dry premix, to form a dough composition having a water activity of no greater than 0.75.

7. The method of Claim 6 and further comprising the step of adding flavouring after saturating the water and before combining the saturated water solution with said agent.

8. The method of Claim 6 or 7 wherein the dry premix comprises: flour, soda, salt, egg yolk solids, albumin and enrichment.

9. The method of any one of Claims 6 to 8, wherein the material capable of saturating the water is sucrose.

10. The method of any one of Claims 6 to 9, wherein the sugar other than sucrose is selected from the group consisting of fructose, dextrose, and glycerol.

11. The method of Claim 10 wherein the selected sugar is in the form of molasses, glycerine, corn syrup and/or brown sugar.

12. The method of any one of Claims 6 to 11 and further comprising the step of adding a quantity colour agent-containing edible particles after the step of forming the dough.

13. The method of Claim 12 wherein the edible particles contain at least one colour agent selected from the group consisting of dye pigments and colour lakes and the resulting dough is substantially free of colour bleed at a storage temperature of about 4.40C (45 degrees Fahrenheit) for about 90 days.

14. A method of forming a cookie dough suitable for combining with edible particles and for storage under refrigerated conditions, the method comprising combining together sugar and shortening; saturating substantially an entire amount of water with sucrose; combining the saturated water with at least one sugar other than sucrose to form a sugar solution wherein a sucrose to other sugar ratio is maintained between about 0.85 and about 5.13; combining the sugar solution with the combined sugar and shortening; and adding to the above a dry premix, to form a dough having an Aw value no greater than 0.75.

15. The method of Claim 14 wherein the dry premix comprises: flour, leavening, salt, sugar, egg solids and enrichment.

16. The method of Claim 14 or 15 wherein the sugar solution comprises sucrose, water and at least one other sugar selected from the group consisting of glycerine, fructose and dextrose.

17. A product formed by the process of any one of Claims 6 to 13.

18. A product formed by the process of any one of Claims 14 to 16.

19. A refrigerated dough cookie composition substantially as herein described with reference to the accompanying drawing.

20. A method of making a dough cookie composition substantially as herein described with reference to the accompanying drawing.

21. Any novel feature or combination of features disclosed herein.