The role of wheat flour constituents, sugar, and fat in low moisture cereal based products: a review on sugar-snap cookies

Much research has been done to understand the contribution of different flour constituents to the cookie quality. Most authors agree on the role of starch in cookies, which, although it is the main flour constituent, has a relatively small influence on cookie quality. Flour proteins, which are quantitatively less important than starch, seem to have a more pronounced role in cookie baking. However, in literature, there is no consensus about their role and influence on the product quality. As for starch, there is much more agreement about the role of non-starch polysaccharides and flour lipids. Not only flour, but also other ingredients of the cookie (dough) formula, such as shortening (fat), sugar, and water are important for the quality of the end product. We here provide the different points of view in this area and speculate on the functionality and quality determining properties of flour constituents, sugar, fat, and water and their role and influence during the different stages of cookie baking and on the end quality of sugar-snap cookies.