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Puff Pastry


yoshka

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I am going to Russia on a volunteer project through USAID

The client wants to make puff dough(not a problem) but he wants to make puff cookies and puff sticks some savory some sweet.

The problem is that he wants a shelf life for those items for at least 40 days.

any suggestions how to solve this?

They don't have vacuum packing machines.

Thanks for you help

yoshka

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One major problem is with the sweet ones. Sugar is hydroscopic, meaning it absorbs the moisture from the surrounding environment. This means that they have to be sealed tightly, and probably in a non-humid environment to boot.

You biggest problem is going to be moisture, I think. Also, what kind of conditions will they be stored in?

As far as I know, puff pastry will not hold up that long, unless it is given some other treatment, or some kind of preservative is included. Would they consider a pretzel type thing instead? Those would certainly give you 40 days or more...

Screw it. It's a Butterball.
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I don't know what food-safe substance can be added to a storage container to reduce and absorb moisture but perhaps there is something? I assume that silica gel is not acceptable but perhaps if it's in the right type of packaging it might be okay? Even so... forty days seems a bit too long.

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We just got some samples of palmier into the bakery at the earthy crunchy groceria, individually packed in a sealed cellophane envelope, and they have a 30 day shelf life. I'd bet anything they are packed with what I heard referred to by a cookie manufacturer's rep as a "hydrogen flush." That leaves me wondering if she really meant hydrogen, what with the Hindenburg and all, maybe it's nitrogen. But I guess that's one way to do it.

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That leaves me wondering if she really meant hydrogen, what with the Hindenburg and all, maybe it's nitrogen. But I guess that's one way to do it.

Yeah, nitrogen is the normally used innert gas used to keep things fresh longer. Most chip manufacturers use it in baged snacks for this purpose.

By the way, to do a little myth dispelling - fairly recent investigations have determined that it wasn't the hydrogen in the Hindenburg that caused the thing to flame out. Hydrogen is actually not as combustible as many other gases and fuels, including gasoline. The real problem was that the whole thing was coated in powdered aluminum (to get that nice, shiny silver) which is extremely combustible and is more commonly used today as ROCKET FUEL.

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Thanks for all of yoy.

I really don't know the situation there- so I'll go there and will comunicate with you from there and ask my question again.

Thanks again for your help

Yoshka

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The nitrogen flush works but has a distinct limitation. Illy packs its whole bean and ground coffee in a nitrogen flush environment in pressurized cans. Their claim is that the coffee will keep in hte can at room temp for up to two years and stay fresh. That's a bit of bunk but the fact is that when first opened their product is generally fresher than competing canned espresso coffees (e.g. LaVazza) but, possibly because it often sits in storage for awhile because of the "extended shelf life" offered. The down side is the fact that it goes stale really fast once its opened.

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