Hydroxypropyl methylcellulose and methylcellulose structured oil as a replacement for shortening in sandwich cookie creams

Abstract

The partial and full substitution of icing shortening with freeze dried hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC) and methylcellulose (MC) structured canola oil in sandwich cookie cream was investigated. The cellulose derivatives were prepared using a foam templating approach and incorporated as a shortening replacer in food applications. Treatments were formulated with a 40 wt% fat component and 60 wt% icing sugar, with icing shortening being replaced at 50, 75, and 100% with HPMC- or MC-structured canola oil. These treatments were compared to a 100% shortening control and commercial sandwich cookie cream as an industry benchmark. Shelf life of cookie creams was effectively improved with increasing level of shortening replacement; the amount of unbound oil decreased as a higher amount of oil adsorbed to the surface of added polymer sheets. It was found that the shortening control resulted in highly sticky and gummy creams, while shortening replacement at 50 and 75% gave similar large deformation textural properties as the commercial benchmark. Full replacement resulted in creams that were excessively hard. The storage modulus of creams were used as an interpretation of stiffness, and showed that shortening replacement increased stiffness to match the commercial benchmark. As a rheological fingerprint, nonlinear, large amplitude oscillatory shear Lissajous plots were used to show differences among samples at stresses beyond the linear regime. Based on these results, it was found that cookie creams with desirable functional behaviour can be made by replacing shortening with HPMC- and MC-structured canola oil at intermediate levels.