Background: The aim of this research was to investigate whether certain polyols (mannitol, maltitol, sorbitol, lactitol), fructose, oligofructose and polydextrose can replace sugar (by an equal amount of each substitute) in cake formulations. The rheological behaviour of the cake batter and the physical characteristics of the cakes containing sugar substitutes were compared with the respective attributes of the control cake. Differential scanning calorimetry was used to investigate the effect of sugar substitutes on starch gelatinisation. Furthermore sensorial characteristics were evaluated by instrumental measurements and sensory evaluation. The correlation of the batter characteristics with the textural attributes of the final product was also attempted.
Results: The best results were obtained by using oligofructose, lactitol or maltitol as sugar replacers, which exhibited similar behaviour to sucrose in terms of batter rheology and increased starch gelatinisation temperature. Fructose and mannitol led to cakes of poor quality characteristics, as was demonstrated by instrumental measurements and sensory evaluation.
Conclusions: Batter rheological behaviour as well as the ability of sugar substitutes to increase starch gelatinisation temperature proved to be controlling factors of the textural properties and volume of the cakes. The sensory evaluation indicated that overall acceptance followed closely the scores of tenderness and taste.
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