Physicochemical and textural properties of puff pastry margarines

Abstract

In this paper some physicochemical and textural characteristics of four puff pastry margarines are defined: MLT1 and MLT2 with low trans fatty acid (TFA) content, MLT3 with relatively low and MLT4 with high TFA content. Analyzing the solid trigliceride content (SFC), the crystallization kinetics in isothermal conditions and the margarine firmness, it is determined whether the technological characteristics of margarines (which are very important for puff pastry quality) are significantly changed due to TFA decrease in margarines. The highest SFC at 10, 20, 25 i 308C have samples MLT1 and MLT4. Despite of significant differences in fatty acid composition of these margarines, SFC content at temperatures at 20, 25, and 308C do not differ significantly, at the level of significance of 95% ( p>0.05). The SFC of MLT1 and MLT2 samples, which have practically the same fatty acid composition at every investigated temperature, statistically have significant difference ( p<0.05). The crystallization kinetics are in the range from 2.6 to 10.1% per min. The significance of the induction period at every observed samples is negligible. The average firmness of margarine samples MLT1, MLT2, MLT3, and MLT4 at 20, 25, and 308C is significantly different ( p<0.05). The firmness changes of the samples MLT1 and MLT2 in the most important temperature interval for puff pastry production (between 20 and 308C) are at level of 5 to 25%, and for margarine samples MLT3 and MLT4 these values reach even 70%.

Puff pastry and trends in fat reduction: an update

“…The main types of laminating fat used for puff pastry making are butter, shortenings and margarines. Butter was traditionally the main fat used, but in many cases, it has been replaced by other fats, due mainly to its high cost and low‐processing temperatures which may be required (Pajin et al ., ). For example, butter has a low solid fat index at 20 °C and puff pastry sheets made with butter need to be processed at temperature around 12–14 °C (Cauvain & Young, ).…”

“…The main saturated fatty acid is palmitic acid (C16:0) with lesser amounts of stearic acid (C18:0), tetradecanoic acid (C14:0) and dodecanoic acid (C12:0). The unsaturated fatty acids (liquid at room temperature) contain mainly oleic acid (C18:1), and lesser amounts of linoleic acid (C18:2), and α‐linoleic acid (C18:3) (Pajin et al ., ).…”

“…Several researchers have described key performance characteristics of puff pastry fats: firmness (consistency), plasticity (optimal solid fat content) and melting properties (Tamstorf et al ., ; Kazier & Dyer, ; Cauvain, ; Wassell & Young, ; Pajin et al ., ; Lefébure et al ., ). The fat should be firm enough to withstand the dough folding operation and to form continuous undamaged thin layers of fat under a high degree of sheer applied during the sheeting.…”

“…A few studies have reported the optimum melting property requirement for a puff pastry fat. Doerry (as cited in Pajin et al ., ) indicated that a solid fat content of 16% at 40 °C and the requirement for gradual changes of this content at temperatures between 50 and 92 °C to be optimum. Similarly, a solid fat content of 38–45% at 20 °C reported to give the maximum‐specific height of puff pastry (Cauvain, ).…”

Impact of low-trans fat compositions on the quality of conventional and fat-reduced puff pastry

“…The majority of studies focussed on the characteristics of shortenings and fats used in puff pastry production, e.g. (Pajin et al 2011;Lefébure et al 2013), rather than the characteristics of the final baked products (Cavillot et al 2009;Simovic et al 2009). …”