Effect of lipid physical characteristics on the quality of baked products

- Physical properties of a low saturated shortening were changed using ultrasound.
- Cake quality is affected by the amount of crystalline material.
- Cake quality is not affected by crystal size.
- High amount of crystallized material and small crystals result in higher cookies.
- Small crystals are needed to obtain a high pie crust.

A low saturated shortening (IES) was treated with high intensity ultrasound (US) to generate small lipid crystals and harder materials. IES samples were crystallized at 32 °C and tempered for 48 h at 5 and 25 °C. US-treated and non US-treated IES were used to produce baked products such as cakes, cookies, and pie crust. US-treated IES decreased (p < 0.05) cake batter density especially when the shortening was tempered at 5 °C. No effect on cake density, hardness, water activity, moisture and consumer perception as a function of shortening used (US-treated vs. non US-treated IES) was observed. However, harder cakes with lower water activity were obtained when cakes were formulated with the shortenings tempered at lower temperatures. US-treated shortenings also decreased cookie dough density and as expected, increased cookie height and decreased cookie spread. In addition, cookies formulated with the sonicated shortenings tempered at 5 and 25 °C had lower water activity than the cookies formulated with the non-sonicated shortening. Sonicated shortenings did not affect the consumer acceptance of the cookies; however, cookies formulated with shortenings tempered at 25 °C were more liked in terms of texture and overall acceptability. Pie crust formulated with US-treated IES tempered at 25 °C resulted in a significantly taller pie crust, while pie crusts formulated with US-treated IES tempered at 5 °C were softer. The use of a sonicated shortening did not affect the water activity nor the consumer acceptance of the pie crust with lower water activities and consumer acceptance obtained in pie crusts formulated with shortenings tempered at 25 °C.