Episode 1
Marshmallow Cookies
The next time you bite into a marshmallow cookie, you can thank the ancient Egyptians. They invented marshmallow candy by thickening honey with sap from the root of the marshmallow plant, a herb that grows in salt marshes and along large bodies of water. Modern marshmallow contains gelatin instead of sap from the mallow root.
The snap test: to make sure the coating is hard and thick enough. Then, the taste test. If you've got a sweet tooth, doing quality control in the marshmallow cookie factory is your dream job.
To make a batch of dough for the cookie base, they mix wheat flour, salt, baking soda and powder, cornstarch, whey powder, and potassium sorbate. Then they add several liquid ingredients. This one causes a chemical reaction, making the biscuit lighter. This cream-colored liquid is vegetable oil shortening. This transparent liquid is glucose fructose, a sweetener. The ingredient proportions are also a company secret. From the mixer, the dough goes into a machine called the chipper. It shreds the big blob into pieces about the size of the cap on a highlighter pen. This makes the dough more manageable for the next machine, called a rotary mold. Inside that machine, a large roller flattens the dough pieces, forming them into a dense sheet about 1/2 inch thick. It then presses the sheet against another roller whose surface is a cookie mold. The factory uses the rotary mold machine for many different types of cookies. It simply installs the appropriate roller for the cookie in production. For marshmallow cookie bases, the mold cavities are round. The bases exit the rotary mold and make their way onto a moving baking sheet. That transports them to an oven. The baking time and temperature are, once again, top secret. The baked cookie bases exit the oven and move onto a conveyor belt that transports them to a cooling area.
Once they cool to room temperature, the bases go into a machine called the base feeder. It lines them up like marching soldiers to receive their marshmallow filling and chocolate coating. The process does require military precision. Factory technicians have to adjust this machine daily to ensure accuracy to 1/32 of an inch. A portion of filling has to land perfectly centered on each base, finishing off in a curled peak, this brand's trademark. The company won't divulge how much marshmallow filling goes into each cookie, nor will it reveal its marshmallow recipe. But marshmallow is usually made from either corn syrup or sugar and gelatin. And now for the final layer: the chocolate coating. Not only are the marshmallow and base covered in hot, melted chocolate, the base floats in it, which coats the underside, as well. Built-in air jets blow off the excess. The chocolate hardens inside a cooling tunnel. How long that takes in the tunnel temperature are - you guessed it - classified information. As the cookies exit the cooling tunnel, a quality control worker does spot checks to ensure the coating is thorough, hard enough, and thick enough.
On the packaging line, the cookies go into plastic trays. To keep up to speed, the workers have to grab four cookies in each hand without breaking the coating. The trays pass through a machine that wraps them in plastic film. This keeps the cookies fresh and also prevents them from falling out of the tray. Meanwhile, another machine assembles the boxes: first folding and gluing one end shut. Once workers load the trays, the machine glues the open end closed, as well. Then, with the go-ahead from quality control, the box's next stop is the cookie aisle of your local supermarket.
Episode 4
Snack Cakes
When Marie Antoinette said, "Let them eat cake," she probably didn't mean those mini jelly logs. Still, in the realm of treats for the sweet tooth, snack cakes have been revolutionary. They're just the right size for a quick snack and individually wrapped to stay fresh.
Veteran snackers will recognize this as a jelly log, a sponge cake rolled up with jam and a creamy filling. First, the factory bakes the sponge cake. It comes out of the oven in continuous strips. Those moving arms align the strips to receive the fillings. One machine then does it all. First it deposits an even layer of cream filling, then blobs of strawberry jam. Now the rolling begins. One side of the cake strip runs against a metal guide. This lifts and folds over the edge. Then the cake strips run against a second guide which rolls it over some more. Now the machine cuts the continuous strip into separate cakes. Then an automated roller completes the logs. The jelly logs go onto a conveyor belt that positions them closer together, aligning them for the next phases of production. They travel through a waterfall of strawberry-flavored syrup. This sticky coating acts as a tasty glue to adhere the shredded coconut that showers them next. The conveyor belt shakes off the excess which, like the excess strawberry syrup before, gets fed through the machine again.
Now, if all this doesn't have your sweet tooth tingling yet, the next snack cake will. It's a chocolate cream cake covered in a chocolate coating. Production begins in the mixer, where they combine eggs, a vegetable oil mixture, flour, sugar, water, glucose, a liquid sweetener, and cocoa powder. The mixer blends the ingredients at high speed for one minute. Then it pumps the batter into a machine called the automated depositor, which squirts the batter into cake molds. The conveyor belt transports the mold pans to the oven. The batter bakes for 7 minutes. To achieve just the right texture, there's a very specific heating pattern. Once the pans exit the oven, a robot flips the cakes upside down onto a conveyor belt. It stacks the empty mold pans onto another conveyor that sends them back for more batter. Now the cakes flip right side up onto a wire conveyor belt. Air circulating between the wires cools the cakes. The next machine aligns the cakes in position for the next phases of production. First, thin blades saw the cakes in half. Then, suction tubes remove the tops and place them next to the bottoms. Next, the machine drops a portion of cream filling on each bottom. The cream is about the consistency of margarine. As the feeder tube above each cake delivers it, a wire cutter slices off a piece about 1/4 of an inch thick. Then the suction tubes put the tops back on. Now the cakes pass through a shower of hot, chocolate-flavored liquid. This coats the top and sides. At the same time, the cakes travel through a bath of the liquid. This coats the underside. Air jets blow off the excess. The cakes pass through a cooling tunnel. This hardens the chocolate-flavored coating.
Then it's off to the packaging department. The cakes file into a sheet of polypropylene film. The machine seals, then cuts the film between each cake. This keeps each one fresh until snack time.
Episode 9
Yule Logs
A yule log is a traditional dessert for reveillant, the Christmas Eve meal that follows midnight mass in France and other French-speaking countries. It's a rolled sponge cake covered in chocolate frosting and decorated to look like a tree log. It's supposed to represent a real yule log, the burning of which was once a popular Christmas ritual.
This company uses vanilla or chocolate ice cream instead of frosting. The cake itself is chocolate sponge cake.
Workers start by making chocolate cake batter in a machine called a liquefier. They add flavoring, exactly what is a trade secret, and liquid eggs, binding agents, butter oil, sugar, flour, and cocoa. After mixing the batter for 20 minutes, a machine called the cake depositor pumps it into a 13-gallon vat. The cake depositor distributes the batter evenly through nozzles spaced 3 1/2 inches apart. Then it spreads the batter onto brown craft paper that's a little more than three feet wide. The paper's waxed so the cake won't stick after baking. The machine funnels the batter into an even layer that's 1/4 of an inch thick and 36 inches wide. Workers make between 8,000 to 10,000 yule logs daily, depending on the size. After baking for seven minutes at 500 degrees Fahrenheit, a conveyor moves the cake out of the oven at six feet per minute. Next, a circular saw separates the cake right down the middle. Every 17 seconds, another blade, appropriately called a guillotine, drops down, slicing the cake into smaller segments. A machine pours strawberry jam onto a thick layer of ice cream. This creates three layers, including the cake slab underneath. The factory goes through more than 4,000 pounds of jam and 3,000 gallons of ice cream per 8-hour shift. A worker gently separates the cake slabs, leaving about three inches of excess ice cream and jam, which is thrown away. She then separates the cake from the craft paper by folding the cake onto itself once, then rolling the cake, ice cream, and jam layers together. Watch closely and you'll see that she doesn't touch the cake, only the paper. She wears rubber gloves to prevent her hands from sticking to the paper.
The worker rolls the cake into a machine called a slicer. It cuts the cake into three 8-inch-long segments called logs. The slicer deposits the logs into plastic trays. Another machine now decorates with ice cream. It covers the surface as well as the ends. The ice cream decorations are lace and floral designs. Now for the embellishments. Workers place two candied maraschino cherries on each log. Then a machine drizzles on bits of maple sugar as another worker cuts the connecting ice cream, separating the logs. This factory uses maple sugar bits instead of nuts on its logs out of concern for allergies. Next, a plastic poinsettia on each log. Then, a plastic "Joyeuses Fêtes," which is French for "Happy Holidays." A conveyor belt moves the logs through a machine called a CO2 tunnel. Inside, sprayers blast the logs with a mist that instantly freezes them. This mist is carbon dioxide refrigerated to minus 185 degrees Fahrenheit. Five minutes in the CO2 tunnel superfreezes the outer layer so workers can handle it easily.
A wrapping machine covers the logs in a clear plastic film. Then another machine simultaneously cuts and heat-seals the plastic, enclosing the logs in bags. Finally, a worker packs the bags into boxes for shipping. The factory stores the boxes in its warehouse freezers at minus 95 degrees Fahrenheit. Then, as Christmas approaches, these holiday desserts go out to the stores, where they sell for $5 to $8 each.
