DisplayTitle

The typical sweet and moist characteristics of high ratio cake formulations are well appreciated in markets all over the world. For these kinds of products it is necessary to change the functionality of the flour by processes like the dry heat treatment. Currently, a cake needs to be baked to assess the success of the treatment and the suitability of flour in these applications. The problem with testing flour with analytical methods is that a whole range of treatment conditions (e.g. time and temperature) will result in the same level of response, but only few will deliver a satisfactory cake. In this work, a method is developed that allows evaluating heat treated flour for its suitability in high ratio cakes in a cost- and time-saving way. Two response surfaces are created with treatment time and temperature as parameters. The two responses are the peak viscosities in the rapid visco analyser (rva) of the treated flour i) in water and ii) in 50% sucrose solution. The contour lines of both surfaces are not parallel and an area that produces satisfactory cakes may be established. Both responses are tested for an unknown, heat treated flour sample and the point is found where the two contour lines cross. The experienced treatment time and temperature can be determined and the unique treatment condition may be correlated with cake quality (e.g. volume, structure). A graph is created where contour lines of rva peak viscosities in water and 50% sucrose solution cross in an operating window of 110°C - 150°C and 0 – 30 min. It shows the principle of how a concrete treatment condition can be assigned to an unknown flour sample and how that sample performs in a high ratio cake. This method may result in it no longer being needed to bake a cake for quality assessment of flour.