Paper No.

: 09
Paper Title: BAKERY AND CONFECTIONERY TECHNOLOGY
Module – 14: Technology of Wafer Biscuits
Technology of Wafers Biscuits
 Introduction
Wafers are low-moisture-baked-foods.

The primary textural attributes of products are crunchiness or

crispness

Wafers represent a specialized type of light-textured biscuit,

generally made from cereals.

The thin, crisp, precisely shaped wafers are available in variety of

shapes including flat, hollow, cones, sticks etc.

Wafers usually serve as the edible carriers of an added food.

In wafers starch gelatinization in wafer is quite high.

 The characteristics of wafer
1. Wafers are very thin biscuits: thickness lies between 1 and 5
mm

2. The wafer surfaces are smooth and precisely formed with the
dimensions, engravings, logos etc.

3. Wafers are cereal based low fat products

4. The product density of wafer ranges from 0.10 to 0.25 g/cm3 :

wafer matrix highly aerated and composed of gelatinized
starch

5. Wafers for delicate crisp texture combine well with different

types of coatings and fillings like cream, ice cream, foam etc
 The classification of wafer
Wafers may be classified in two basic types:

 No-or low-sugar wafers

 High-sugar wafers

Wafer may be following three types:

 Plain

 Sandwiched

 Coated
 Compositional requirement of wafers

Table 1: Compositional requirements of wafers (BIS, 1988)

Characteristics Wafer types

Plain Sandwhich/
Coated
Moisture, percent by mass, Max 4.5 6.0

Acid insoluble ash (on dry basis), percent 0.05 0.05

by mass, Max

Acidity of extracted fat (as oleic acid), 1.0 1.0

percent by mass, Max
 Ingredients of wafer biscuits
According to BIS (1988) the ingredients of wafer biscuit can be classified in
two types: Essential ingredients, Optional ingredients
Essential ingredients: Flour and Water
Optional ingredients:
Baking powder and other leavening agents
 Chocolate, cocoa powder, coffee extract
Citric, malic, lactic, tartaric, acetic acid
Food colours, flavouring essences, flavour improvers and fixers
Fruit and fruit products
 Salt, dextrose, liquid glucose and sugar products (gur, jiggery etc.)
Emulsifying and stabilizing agents agents
Preservatives and antioxidents, fat and shortenings
 Milk products and egg products
Nutrients- vitamins, minerals etc., etc.
 Ingredients of wafer biscuits

Table2. Specification for using dough improvers and conditioners

Ingredients Name Quantity (g/ kg of
flour)
Dough improves Ammonium persulphate Max 2.5 g

Potassium bromate/ Potassium iodate Max 50

Dough conditioners Calcium or sodium salt of stearoyl-2- Max 2.0

lactylate

Polysorbates Max 2.0

(BIS, 1988)
 Wafer oven
The oven is the heart of the process

Oven consists of pair of strong metal plates which is latched,

immediately after the placing of batter between them

The flat wafer sheets have thickness of maximum than 2-5 mm

The baking plates can carry special figures

The plate pairs are fixed to heavy carriers to support the plates
and to keep them rigid

Wafer baking ovens can contain up to 120 plate pairs with 41-61
plates are most common
 Wafer oven
The plates are heated either directly by gas or by electric heaters
and operate at temperatures between 160C and 190C

Deposits of charred oils and sugars build up, blackening the

surfaces and causing wafer release problems, regular cleaning is
necessary

cleaning may be needed after about 1000 hours of running, Plate

cleaning is best achieved with caustic soda solution

Modern wafer- baking plates often are surface plated, e.g. with
chromium for easier release and reduction of cleaning stops
Role of Wafer
Ingredients
 Flour
Gluten strength of flour is a key to finished wafer quality, medium
gluten strength is suitable

Soft wheat flour for biscuit production is preferred

Flour with protein content between 8.1% and 10.9% gives

acceptable wafer sheet, whereas increased protein content (12.8-
13.2%) lead to an unacceptable product

Flour with smaller particle size gives less dense, soft and friable
sheet; course flour gives unacceptable and incomplete sheets.

The water absorption of flour is important, variation in this property

affect the batter consistency for any given solids content.
 Water
Water is one of the important parameter of wafer sheet preparation

Water helps in the distribution of ingredients

Water also functions as a leavening agent

Water produce a convenient consistency to flow over cover plates

The quantity of water added to wafer batter is roughly 150% of

flour weight.

Less water results in thick, heavy and unbaked sheets occur

Water temperature should be around 20C to prevent gluten strand

formation
 Fat and lecithin

Fat and lecithin are used as release agent

wafer surface is smoother when fats are present in the recipe

For convenience, liquid vegetable oils are favoured over solid fats

Lecithin is a useful addition, it is better to include a fluidized soya

lecithin with the fat or oil rather than use powdered lecithin to save
cost

Though, the fat content of wafers is low, the inclusion of

antioxidant in the oil is necessary to retard rancidity

Eggs can serve as a source of both fat and emulsifier (lecithin)

 Sugar and milk powder

Sugar and milk powder added in small quantities to improve quality

They promote wafer colouring and sticking to the plates

staling is retarded by incorporation of sugar and crispiness is

maintained for longer

Sugar, when used in ice cream cones, it is necessary to employ

specially designed equipments

Salt is added as a flavour enhancer at a level of 0.25 units per 100

units of flour
 Aeration
Aeration is most important in wafer preparation

Leavening agents help in development of porous texture of wafers

by increasing the number of gas cells in batter

Sodium bicarbonate and ammonium bicarbonate or a mixture of

two can work to create chemical aeration

Combination of batter consistency and ammonium bicarbonate

level is the best way to control batter spread and wafer weight

Sodium bicarbonate and ammonium-bi-carbonate also affects the

final pH and influence the colour development during baking

High pH of batter retards gluten strands formation which is

undesirable
 Aeration
Yeast is added as a means of aeration

Yeast cells form the nuclei for water vapour production which is
important for the formation of a good wafer texture.

Yeast is now rarely used in batter preparation as batter standing

times and multiplication temperatures of yeast are not usually very
practical

Other ingredients

The information about flavouring ingredients of wafer is scanty

Most synthetic flavours and essential oils are lost in wafer
production
Protein hydrolysates are fairy heat stable and they may be used,
although they are prone to colour development
 Role of different processing
parameter in wafers weight and
thickness
Role of different processing parameter in
wafers weight and thickness
 Role of different processing parameter in
wafers weight and thickness
The increased gaps between the plates increases the thickness

Higher volume of deposit gave increased sheet weight with

excessive waste

Thick batter gives a heavier, more dense and harder wafer.

Faster closure gives lower weights and thinner wafers

Fast baking speeds require high plate temperatures resulting to

‘shelling’ (wafers with extremely fragile centre texture)

If the drying is more surface burning and sticking may happen

If heat disposition across a plate is uneven some cracks may

occur
 Manufacture Technology of wafer biscuits

Wafer batter ingredients (weight parts, flour=100)

Ingredients Low-sugar wafer Higher-sugar wafer
Wheat flour 100 100
Water 120-160 100-140
Starch 0-12 0-5
Sucrose 0-4 25-75
Oil/ fat 0.5-2.0 1-6
Milk powder 0-2 0-2
Soy lecithin 0.2-1.0 0.2-1.5
Salt 0-0.6 0-0.6
Sodium bicarbonate 0.1-0.5 0-0.3
Flow diagram of wafer biscuits preparation

Batter preparation Creaming and book

building

Batter transport and Cooling and cutting

deposition

Wafer sheet baking Enrobing in chocolate

Wafer release and cooling Cooling

Packaging
Wafer conditioning
 Batter preparation
Wafer batter is prepared by mixing the water-soluble components
followed by addition of farinaceous ingredients.

The batter should be of homogenous nature containing about 35-

40% dry matter.

Appropriate mixing is necessary for to achieve a homogenous

suspension, 4 min time is required

The viscosity of batter should be low enough to flow over and

cover the oven plate.

The high viscosity results in undesirable quality of wafer.

The desirable quality wafers are made from a fluid batter with a
viscosity in the range of 300-2000 mPs.
 Wafer preparation
The batter is transferred after preparation into intermediate tank,
from where it is pumped to the oven and spread on to baking
plates.

The baking of wafer sheets is done in wafer oven at 160-190C. The

baking times ranges between 1.5 and 2.5 min.

At the end of the baking operation the baked sheets are released
and cooled.

Wafers are passed to a conditioning unit, where the moisture

content of the sheets is increased to achieve some stability in
texture and size of the wafer.
 Wafer preparation

The wafer sheets are passed to the creaming station, where

creaming is done at temperatures of 30-40C.

Coated sheets are built up into piles to create ‘book’.

The wafer books pass into a cooling tunnel to set the cream.

The cooled books are cut into desired sizes by application of taut
wires, blades or circular saws.

Laminated or specially coated films are used for wafer packaging

in flow packs, boxes and bags.

The wafer biscuits have be to protect against humidity, oxygen and

light to insure a shelf life of 6-9 months.
 MoldedWafer Cones
The molded wafer cones are ‘hollow’ wafers in shape of cups and
fancy shapes

They are mainly of two types, a) No-or low-sugar cones, generally

known as ‘cake cones’ b) molded sugar cones

Low-sugar cones are generally similar to those for sheets and

contain an intermediate sugar content, below 20 parts of sucrose
for 100 parts of flour

‘Rolled sugar cones’ are the product containing more than 20%
concentration of sucrose or other sugars in finished product

Rolled wafer sticks are hollow tubes with walls consisting of very
thin multiple layers, the layers do not carry a wafer pattern and are
0.5 mm thick.
 Innovations in Wafer-manufacturing equipment

Vertically stacked oven

The oven with vertically stacked baking plates, requiring less

floor area is innovated. The weight of the stacks eliminates the
need for hinges as compared to traditional oven.

Low-emission oven

Ovens with “low-emission” heating concept together with a 60%

reduction in energy consumption has come into operation.
Application of induction heating and use of ring is the main key
of the instrument. Reduction in energy consumption with
consistent product is the main output.
 Further reading

Dogan IS. 2006. Factors affecting wafer sheet quality.

International Journal of Food Science and Technology. 41: 569-
576.

Manley DJR. 2000. Technology of Biscuits, crakers and Cookies,

3rd edn. Cambridge, UK: Woodheaf Publishing. Pp: 290-306.

Oliver G. and Sahi SS. 1995. Wafer batters: a rheological study.

Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture. 67: 221-227.

Tiefenbacher K. F. 1993. ‘Wafers’. in Encyclopaedia of Food

Science, Food Technology and Nutrition, Academic Press,
London. Vol., pp: 417–420.