CHAPTER ONE
1.0     INTRODUCTION
Biscuits are the major products produced by the biscuit and crackers industries. Flour confectionery describes a large range of flour based goods other than bread manufactured from batter sponge or dough by mixing, kneading and may be created by fermentation, chemical or other means resulting in puff/flaky short or sweet product. Those that have their moisture content reduced to make them exceptionally brittle or crops are generally regarded as biscuits. (Okaka, 1997)
The word biscuit come from the Latin word Biscuit meaning twice cooked, baking at high temperature followed by drying at lower temperature (Okaka, 1997). The term biscuit and cookie are synonymous. The American Encyclopedia described biscuit as a form of bread baking soda as a raising agent rather than yeast.
Biscuit are a common feature of southern us cousine which can be served as a side dish with meal or as a breakfast item. Biscuit is also said to be essentially bakery confectionery dried down to low moisture content name derived from Latin word for twice cooked, made from soft flour, mostly rich in fat and sugar and consequently of high energy content of 420 to 510kcal per 100g they are cherished by people of all ages and used at different meals and occasions as part of breakfast, snacks etc. they are eaten with butter and jam or jelly or as a part of a dish called “Biscuit and gravy”. Biscuits are also eaten covered in pizza sauce and cheese. Many varieties exist, both sweet and savoulry often produced in industrial quantities by large food companies. Sweet biscuit are commonly eaten as snack and may contain chocolate fruit, jam or nuts (peanuts). Savoury biscuits are plainer and commonly eaten with cheese following a meal
The simplest form of biscuit is a mixture of flour and water but may contain fat sugar and other ingredients mixed together into a dough which is rested for a period, passed between rollers to make a sheet. The sheet is then stamped out baked, cooled and packaged. Biscuits are generally made from wheat flour but according to the topic of this project, “use of composite blends for biscuit making”. Some raw materials other than wheat have to be used in producing the flour for the biscuits. In order to get a superior product especially for crackers, the following factors are of importance – choice of flour for sponge and dough, selection of fermentation environment and the baking conditions. It is therefore necessary to search for raw materials that give flour of light quality.