Utilization of foam structured hydroxypropyl methylcellulose for oleogels and their application as a solid fat replacer in muffins

Abstract

Hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC) was utilized to structure sunflower oil into solid-like oleogels by generating foaming-templates and the feasibility of HPMC oleogels as a shortening replacer in muffins was evaluated in terms of physical, rheological, and tomographical properties. Sunflower oil was successfully converted into a solid form with the assistance of foam-structured HPMC. The resultant oleogels and their blends with shortening rheologically behaved as elastic gels. The replacement of shortening with HPMC oleogels produced muffin batters with lower viscosity and less shear-thinning behavior. The viscoelastic measurements also showed greater contribution of HPMC oleogels to the viscous nature of muffin batters. While the specific gravity of batter had a tendency to increase with increasing replacement levels of shortening, the specific volume of baked muffins was not significantly reduced at shortening replacement levels of up to 50%. Furthermore, the X-ray micro-computed tomographic analysis demonstrated that air cells were much larger in size and inhomogeneously distributed in the muffins prepared with HPMC-oleogels. The shortening replacement with HPMC oleogels at up to 50% by weight did not negatively contribute to the soft and chewy texture of the muffins. These results demonstrated that HPMC oleogels could be effective in replacing shortening at up to 50% without significant deterioration in the quality attributes of muffins.