Caramel Color in Cookies & Cakes
Bakers have been using caramel color to enhance the color and appeal of baked goods for decades. Caramel color is much darker than alternatives such as malt syrup (extract) and food- grade molasses and therefore is widely-used.
Cookie manufacturers like caramel’s high dispersibility in water and dough systems. A wide selection of caramel colors serves as a tool for bakers to design rich, visually-appealing goods ranging from tannish-yellow to reddish-brown to nearly black.
Bakers can choose between liquid or powdered caramel colors depending on their process needs. Some will select powder for its handling ease, longer shelf life, and performance in dry mixes. The caramel powder drying process raises the solids from 50 - 65% to higher than 96%. The resulting powder is darker than liquid so it requires less caramel volume in a baking formula. Given the same caramel type — for every 1.0 kg of liquid, bakers can substitute 0.5 to 0.6 kgs of powder to achieve the same color intensity (darkness).
Sandwich Cookies
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Cookies & Snack Cakes
To obtain a very
dark color in a chocolate cookie wafer, add 3% to 6% (bakers percent) or 1% to 2% (recipe/formula percent) of double-strength caramel (e.g., DDW #050 liquid or #602, #605, #606, #607, #609 powder). The same applies for the following:
Ice cream sandwich wafers
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Wafer sticks
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Snack cakes
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Other cookies
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Cookie Fillings and Cake Frostings
Processors like less moisture in filling and frosting systems, so they choose powder over liquid caramel. However, in some cases an oil-dispersible color (DDW #764) work where dispersibility can be an issue. Class I powder (e.g., DDW #624 or #626) can add both a reddish-brown color and a coffee/toffee flavor note to the fillings of cappuccino-flavored and dulce de leche cookies popular in South America.
Chocolate icings or fillings can be also formulated using DDW double-strength powder, liquid, or 200-series caramel, depending on the desired shading/redness.
Color Comparison
The baking results and photos demonstrate the impact of caramel color in cookies. The following formulas show how 1% caramel color replaces 2% cocoa powder to result in a darker cookie. |
Formula # 1 |
Formula # 2 |
| |
Bakers % |
Actual % |
Bakers % |
Actual % |
| Pastry Flour |
100.0% |
37.54% |
100.0% |
37.9% |
| Powdered Sugar |
67.0 |
25.0 |
67.0 |
25.4 |
| Margarine |
57.0 |
21.0 |
57.0 |
21.57 |
| Water |
21.0 |
8.0 |
21.0 |
8.0 |
| Cocoa Powder, Dutch |
14.0 |
5.3 |
7.0 |
2.65 |
| Nonfat Dry Milk |
4.0 |
1.5 |
4.0 |
1.5 |
| DDW # 602 powder |
0 |
0 |
3.5* |
1.3 |
| Chocolate Flavor Enhancer |
1.36 |
0.5 |
1.36 |
0.52 |
| Salt |
1.33 |
0.5 |
1.33 |
0.5 |
| Baking Soda |
0.9 |
0.34 |
0.9 |
0.34 |
| Vanilla Extract |
0.55 |
0.2 |
0.55 |
0.2 |
| Ammonium Bicarbonate |
0.17 |
0.06 |
0.17 |
0.06 |
| Monocalcium Phosphate |
0.17 |
0.06 |
0.17 |
0.06 |
* Certain bakers may prefer DDW # 050 liquid at 6.4% (bakers percent) in place of DDW # 602 powder.
Dry Mixes
Dry mix is a large, growing industry characterized by ready-to-use mixes, pre-mixes or concentrates. Powdered caramel allows a cookie mix manufacturer to standardize the color of the baking mix. Cake and muffin mixes frequently contain caramel color to enhance the visual appeal of the final product. In addition, caramel can also be used to extend the color of cocoa powder.
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Example of Powdered Caramel Color to Extend Cocoa
Replace 50% of Cocoa Powder in customer’s baking formula with:
|
| Cocoa Powder |
50.0% |
| Flour |
26.1 |
| Milk, powder |
15 |
| DDW # 643* powder |
7.5 |
| Chocolate Flavor |
1.4 |
| |
100.0% |
| * One can substitute DDW # 602, # 605, # 606, # 607, # 609, # 640, or #642 depending on customer’s desired darkness and redness. |
Sulfite Issues
The use of Class III powders (DDW # 640, # 642, # 643) would be desired if sulfite labeling is an issue due to usage levels of Class IV (DDW # 602, # 605,# 606,# 607,# 609) powders.
Replacing or Reducing Synthetic Colors
Before the advent of caramel color powder, dry mixes for brown cakes contained a blend of synthetic (certified) colors to replace cocoa. Today, those bakers can formulate powdered caramel into cake mix for a cleaner ingredient label by reducing or eliminating synthetic colors.
Photo on right shows cake that contains 3% (bakers percent) DDW # 602 powder or a synthetic blend of Red # 40, Yellow # 5, and Blue # 1