The Right Equipment
For The Job

Mrs Higgins Oven Fresh Cookies has been baking American style cookies in New Zealand for over 30 years. They use the finest ingredients to make their cookies, with real New Zealand butter, and no preservatives. The cookie company believes it is the ingredients and the production processes they use that set their cookies apart from the rest of the market. For this reason using the right equipment to keep these products and processes consistent is of paramount importance to them.

The Heat and Chill Answer

Mrs Higgins Cookies was moving to new custom designed premises. It was the perfect time to review their equipment. They investigated alternative options for keeping their cookie dough at a consistent temperature. This is particularly important when the dough contains ingredients such as butter that would either be too hard in winter or too soft in summer. The cookie dough temperature needed to be constantly maintained between 18-22°C.

In the old factory, separate equipment was used to control cookie dough temperature. A hot water cylinder heated the water and a chiller cooled the water while a thermostat measured the temperature, which was manually monitored and adjusted. The water was then fed into a jacket that surrounded the mixing bowl, keeping it and the dough at a constant temperature.

The Solution

Markus Hasler, from Mrs Higgins Cookies, had contacted HWHP (Hot Water Heat Pumps Ltd) a few years prior and chose to revisit the solution that had previously been presented to them. The system HWHP offered was a Performance Plus heat and chill heat pump water heater and a buffer tank combination that worked together to control the temperature of the water that was circulated in the jacket of the mixing bowl.

The system comprises a control box with a temperature display for monitoring, that automatically coordinates the system to regulate the temperature. The control box activates a circulation pump, and the heat and chill unit detects the water temperature in the buffer tank, then automatically heats or chills water to maintain the desired set temperature of 20°C. The circulation pump distributes water to the jacket then returns it to the buffer tank.

“The HWHP solution was more accurate, significantly easier to use and more reliable than the previous system,” said Markus. The HWHP system also allowed more flexibility for unknown variables than the previous system offered. Markus liked the simplicity of the system HWHP presented and requested that we also handle installation of the equipment so that there was only one point of contact for any future maintenance.

A Clear Winner

The HWHP solution was a clear winner for Mrs Higgins Cookies. It was the best solution for the problem, it was at a lower cost than the previous arrangement and they found HWHP easy to deal with.