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Title: Exploration of Sugar Functionality in Sugar-Snap and Wire-Cut Cookie Baking: Implications for Sucrose Reduction or Replacement

Author
item Kweon, Meera
item LOUISE, SLADE - FOOD POLYMER SCIENCE COMP
item HARRY, LEVINE - FOOD POLYMER SCIENCE COMP
item RONALD, MARTIN - USDA-ARS-RETIRED
item Souza, Edward

Submitted to: Cereal Chemistry
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/20/2009
Publication Date: 7/30/2009
Citation: Kweon, M., Louise, S., Harry, L., Ronald, M., Souza, E.J. 2009. Exploration of Sugar Functionality in Sugar-Snap and Wire-Cut Cookie Baking: Implications for Sucrose Reduction or Replacement. Cereal Chemistry. 86(4):425-433.

Interpretive Summary: An experimental design for cookie baking with four diagnostic sugars and two cookie-baking methods demonstrated that the effect of sugar type on cookie making is to transform the apparent baking performance of a flour, such that an excellent cookie flour appears to be a poor quality flour. As diagnostic sugars, xylose, glucose, fructose, and sucrose were used to explore the effects of sugar type on differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), Rapid Visco Analyzer (RVA), and cookie baking. DSC and RVA of starch in 50% sugar solutions showed retardation of gelatinization and retardation of the onset of starch pasting, respectively, compared to water, in the order of water, xylose, fructose, glucose, and sucrose. Sugar-snap cookie baking gave the largest diameter for the cookies baked with sucrose and the smallest diameter for the cookies baked with xylose, but the reverse for height and moisture content. Excessive snap-back was only observed for the cookies baked with xylose. Although wire-cut cookie baking gave the same trends as sugar-snap cookie baking in diameter, height, and moisture content, the range of values for height and moisture content were expanded, providing better resolution of the effects of sugar type. In addition, significant snap-back was observed for the cookies baked with glucose as well as xylose. The goal of these studies was to prepare for the replacement of sucrose by alternative sugars to make cookies with lower glycemic impact and improved prebiotic nutritional benefits. Use of solvent retention capacity (SRC), DSC, RVA and wire-cut cookie baking as predictive research tools demonstrated that identification of a flour with an optimized SRC pattern is the key to successful mitigation of the detrimental effects of sucrose replacement on cookie processing and product attributes. A follow-up cookie- baking study using various alternatives with lower glycemic impact to replace sucrose will be conducted to explore the requirements for commercial production of cookies with lower glycemic impact and improved prebiotic nutritional benefits.

Technical Abstract: Sugars are plasticizers of the biopolymers of wheat flour, but concentrated sugar solutions act as anti-plasticizers, compared to water alone. As a result, gluten development during dough mixing and starch gelatinization/pasting during cookie baking are delayed or prevented. In great excess, aqueous sugar solutions are also preferred solvents of biopolymers, compared to water alone. As a result, solvent retention capacity (SRC) testing with a standard sucrose solvent is used to characterize the pentosan functionality of biscuit flours typically used for cookie baking, for which sucrose is the standard sugar ingredient. The sugar series - xylose (X), glucose (G), fructose (F), and sucrose (Su) - can be used diagnostically to explore the effects of sugar type on DSC, RVA, and cookie-baking performance, because of the differences in their glass-forming abilities (related to plasticization) and their solubility parameters (related to solvent preference). Sugar concentration (% S), total solvent (TS), and dough formulation defined a core experimental design for cookie baking with the four sugar types and two baking methods. Although wire-cut cookie baking (66% S and 64 TS) showed the same trends as sugar-snap cookie baking (73% S and 79 TS) for diameter, height, and moisture content, the wire-cut formulation enabled greater discrimination among the effects of different sugar types on dough and cookie responses. Use of two different crystal sizes of sucrose confirmed the dominant impact of gluten development during dough mixing and starch pasting during cookie baking on collapse: the greater rate of dissolution of smaller crystals resulted in greater surface crack for sugar-snap cookies, and lower height for wire-cut cookies. Because the historical definition of an “excellent quality cookie flour” is based on the performance of a flour in a cookie formulated with sucrose, the effect of sugar type on cookie making is to transform the apparent baking performance of a flour. Whereas formulation with sucrose optimizes flour performance for cookie baking, formulation with xylose exaggerates the worst aspects of flour functionality and makes even the best cookie flour look like a “poor quality cookie flour”. The goal of these studies was to prepare for the replacement of sucrose by alternative sugars, in order to produce cookies with lower glycemic impact and improved prebiotic nutritional benefits. Use of SRC, DSC, RVA and wire-cut cookie baking as predictive research tools demonstrated that identification of a flour with an optimized SRC pattern is the key to successful mitigation of the detrimental effects of sucrose replacement on cookie processing and product attributes.