Bakers and snack makers often pair ovens with dryers to create baked snacks and crackers with their desired crispy or crunchy texture.

John Price, sales director for Sponer Vicars, a Middleby Bakery company, recommended the hybrid oven that combines direct-gas fired (DGF) thermal heat with high-temperature dryers to remove moisture and bake consistent crackers.

For harder baked snacks, he added, a combination DGF and direct-forced convection oven can create crispy, low-moisture snacks with a distinctive, blistered appearance.

Ken Zvoncheck, director, process technology, Reading Bakery Systems (RBS), pointed out that “cracker crisp” type products may use a high-low temperature profile to set the proper, crispy texture. Laminated crackers, instead, rely on a bell-curve temperature profile to provide lift to the cracker and achieve a light texture.

“RBS recommends using primarily convection ovens and dryers to produce these types of products,” he said. “Convection moisture extraction is the most efficient and consistent way to remove humidity from a product.”

He said extracting this moisture with other heat applications, such as DGF, may result in checking — or the development of hairline cracks and a weak product structure — due to uneven moisture loss. In fact, some products are virtually impossible to produce on DGF ovens because of this shortcoming. 

Zvoncheck recommended trying convection dryers after the primary baking process.

Using a low temperature dryer set between 150°F to 285°F for a longer time of 10 to 20 minutes allows for a more gradual, even final moisture reduction without checking issues.

Tim Clark, president and chief executive officer, Radio Frequency Co. (RF), noted that its Macrowave post-bake dryer will enable thin crackers to obtain their final crispy texture and moisture level with no browning in the oven and a longer shelf life.

“For a Macrowave, the dryer reacts to the water molecules in the final product. It will have no effect on taste or the quality of the ingredients being used,” he said. “Certain grains are more difficult to dry to low-moisture contents as the water can be bound to the ingredients. RF can remove this bounded water without over-coloring the product from longer exposure to conventional heat.”

This article is an excerpt from the February 2025 issue of Baking & Snack. To read the entire feature on Cracker & Baked Snack Processing, click here.