Made fresh by hand or industrially par-baked and served with different toppings, there is a whole world of different types of pizza in the market. Recent trends have broadened the pizza landscape, expanding both the producers’ and the consumers’ options. At AAK, it’s the fat flakes that help deliver the perfect pizza experience.
The flaked fats, or flaked shortenings, developed by AAK are designed to enhance the texture, flavor and functionality of the pizza. They do that by opening the pizza’s internal structure and making the surface less even, for an artisanal look, or by improving its flavor profiles, appearance and overall fat control.
Flavor and color
By precisely incorporating minor ingredients, AAK delivers a whole series of benefits to specific production processes. The flakes have a homogeneous distribution of flavor and/or color, which helps eliminate the risk of deviations. Flavor is encapsulated in the fat until the product is baked and the fat starts to melt. Encapsulation means less of the aroma is released during the production process, and the flavor of the end product is enhanced.
They also help products maintain their shape, both during production and after baking. AAK flakes help reduce shrinkage by over 43%. When producing pizza, two key parameters are the extensibility and elasticity of the dough. A certain degree of each attribute is beneficial to the production process; too much of either is detrimental. Tests are undertaken to optimize both.
The KGV plus line, the predecessor in this family, features the highest performance for a Koenig bun line. Also, the line can process doughs with chunks (chocolate, nuts, etc.), which extruder lines often cannot handle, adds the specialist. KGV plus bun line offers an hourly output of approx. 60,000 pieces in 12-row operation; it was awarded with the ASB Innovation Award 2019 and with the iba Award 2018. It consists of the new T-Rex AW high-performance dough divider and rounder, pre-proofer, forming station and an innovative belt stamping station for bagel and donut production, the company details. With specially designed rounding ledges, the T-Rex AW achieves an output of 100 strokes/min. for gentle and smooth dough piece rounding. For this high performance, the line has a relatively small footprint.
For efficiency optimization, “The entire process needs to be coordinated for high-performance lines to guarantee consistent quality. For such high volumes, dough mixing is particularly important and must be timed precisely. Whether customers use continuous mixing systems or stand-alone mixers, the batch production must be coordinated with processing on the make-up line,” explains Staufer.
Crust texture
AAK flaked fats have a positive impact on the texture and mouthfeel of both thin-crust and deep-pan (thick-crust) pizza. Shortness of bite, toughness and crispiness are all attributes that can be measured with a texture analyzer.
Thin-crust pizza
Extensibility is used as a parameter for the textural analysis of thin-crust pizza, correlating with the crispiness of the pizza, which is a key determinant of mouthfeel. It tells us what degree of force is necessary to achieve a penetration depth of 40mm into the baked product. This value is then used as an index of extensibility for thin-crust pizza. When the dough’s elasticity limit is exceeded, the pizza breaks. This limit is known as the ‘maximum positive value’ (see graph 1).
Once the ‘trigger’ force is attained, the graph plots how the pizza responds to tension. It is stretched and, when its elasticity limit is exceeded, it breaks. The force and the distance required to break it indicate the extensibility of the sample. The lower the maximum positive value, the crispier the sample. The greater the distance and time taken, the more extensible the sample. A particular melting profile will give the correct degree of crispiness.
Generally speaking, steep melting profiles have a positive impact on the mouthfeel of thin-crust pizza. As shown in the graph, the pizza crust produced with the correct flakes has a lower maximum positive value in comparison to the pizza crust produced without flakes. This difference is attributed to the frying effect of the flaked fat in the thin-crust pizza. This results in a crispier and flakier crust, which is less tough and therefore more pleasant to bite into.
“Making Better Happen™”
AAK specializes in plant-based oils that are the value-adding ingredients in many of the products people consume. The company makes these products better tasting, healthier, and more sustainable, with solutions co-developed together with its customers. Its 3,900 employees support the close collaboration with customers through 25 regional sales offices, 15 dedicated Customer Innovation Centers, and with the support of more than 20 production facilities. Listed on Nasdaq Stockholm and with headquarters in Malmö, Sweden, AAK has been “Making Better Happen™” for 150 years.
Deep-pan pizza
For deep-pan pizza, toughness is used as a parameter for textural analysis, evaluating what the crust is like to eat, and at the same time, measuring the crumb softness of a deep-pan pizza. At the start of a new measurement, the sample is torn apart. The positive area under the curve indicates the shortness of the sample. The lower this value, the softer the pizza. However, a softer pizza is not necessarily a good thing. A pizza that is low in fat will have a dry mouthfeel. This can be overcome by increasing the fat content, but doing so will also increase the softness of the crumb.
To get the best of all worlds, producers can swap out part of their usual added fat for AAK flaked fats. The result is a pleasant mouthfeel (moist crumb) combined with a crust that has the desired shortness in bite (see graph 2).
Appearance also has an impact on the artisanal experience and flaked fats can be used to make pizzas more visually appealing, as they create clear air pockets and an attractive open dough structure. Different flake thicknesses are used following the thickness of the crumb. Research has shown that neither the SFC % (solid fat content) curve nor the SMP (slip melting point) has any impact on the size of the air pockets. While small, thin fat flakes (<0,5mm) enable a better texture in thin-crust pizza, thicker flakes (>0,5mm) lead to the creation of large air pockets that are evenly distributed throughout the crumb.
Flaked fats also offer a significant advantage for pizza transport, usually done in cardboard boxes while the pizza is still warm. The amount of oil that migrates to the cardboard box can be drastically reduced simply by choosing the right size flakes with the right melting point. This not only prevents oiling out, but also gives the crust a better texture. What’s more, avoiding oily fingers is an added benefit for anyone who likes to eat pizza with their hands.
