Cellulose ether emulsions as fat replacers in muffins: Rheological, thermal and textural properties

•The use of cellulose ether emulsions reduced up to 49% fat content in muffins.•Comparison with results obtained with sunflower oil or butter as fat source was made.•The viscoelastic properties explain baked muffin properties.•The emulsion muffins showed only slightly lower acceptability.

Sunflower oil, butter and two types of sunflower oil cellulose ether emulsions were used as fat sources in a muffin formulation. The advantage of employing these emulsions is that the final fat content in the muffin formulation is reduced to 49%. The viscoelastic and the calorimetric properties associated with the starch gelatinization of the muffin batter were investigated. In the baked muffins, height, crumb bubble size and instrumental texture were analysed.The butter batter's viscoelastic properties differed the most from the other batters. Although the butter batter exhibited the highest elastic predominance at room temperature, it was observed to decrease during heating. In the oil and the cellulose emulsion batters, on the other hand, an increase in elasticity was observed during heating. The cellulose emulsions induce a highly significant decrease in the starch gelatinization temperature, in comparison with both the oil and butter batters. The oil muffins are the highest and their texture is the most highly aerated. Both the height and crumb bubble size of the cellulose emulsion muffins were found to lie between those of the oil and the butter muffins. Sensory acceptability of the emulsion muffins was slightly lower, which could be associated with their harder texture.