The purpose of this study was to evaluate the hydrocolloids–protein mixture as a fat replacer in sugar-free low-fat muffin cakes. In this study, a hydrocolloids mixture including konjac and guar gums and soy protein isolate (SPI) was applied to the cake. The combination of gums and SPI was named as mixture of stabilizers (MOS), and the treatments were designed using Design-Expert software and the response surface methodology (RSM) in order to optimize and reduce the oil content of muffin cakes by replacing it with MOS. Evaluation of treatments characteristics were investigated on days 1 and 15 of their production. The dependent variables were moisture content, water activity, specific volume, porosity, hardness, cohesiveness, springiness, chewiness and crumb color of cakes. The results show that increasing the percentage of MOS has positive effects on the final products in comparison to oil. In other words, an increase in the MOS content resulted in an increase in the moisture content, water activity, specific volume, height, springiness, cohesiveness, chewiness and L* (lightness) values, but negative effect on hardness, a* (redness) and b* (yellowness) values. As a result of optimizing using RSM, the usage of 4.08% oil and 0.31% MOS resulted in a 62.9% reduction in oil content in comparison with the control sample. The panelists assigned the lowest score to hardness and crumb color and the highest score to overall acceptability and cohesiveness to the optimized muffin.

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Summary The aim of the study was to evaluate the physical and microstructural characteristics of crackers baked in four different industrial baking ovens (indirect radiation‐cyclotherm, indirect convection, hybrid and industrial tunnel‐ITO). Indirect convection and cyclotherm ovens provide the highest (5685.43 ± 51 W m−2) and the lowest (4860 ± 38.87 W m−2) amount of heat flux, respectively. Despite the amount of heat flux, indirect convection led to crackers with the highest moisture (7.86% vs. 4.82% in clyclotherm) and specific volume, but the lowest hardness. Cyclotherm resulted in crackers with lower specific volume, surface area, porosity, smooth and regular surface. Conversely, the hybrid and ITO ovens showed closer heat flux, leading to crackers with similar moisture content, texture parameters, specific volume, browning and inner porosity. Overall results show the potential of baking using different ovens for modifying the quality parameters of the crackers.

Sodium metabisulfite is one of the most employed reducing agents in hard biscuit making. The recent results about its adverse effects on human health have pushed us to look in new safer and greener directions. Two different proteases, from distinct strains (bacterial and fungal), were selected and their effects on the dough thermomechanical performances, texture, and structure of the hard biscuits were compared with those obtained from the sodium metabisulfite. Doughs treated with fungal protease showed higher stability during mixing and higher consistency throughout the heating stage. On the other hand, bacterial protease had the greatest weakening effect on protein with a marked reduction of starch gelatinization. Doughs processed with fungal enzymes reached similar values to those containing sodium metabisulfite. In terms of hardness, no significant ( p < 0.05) differences were found between biscuits made with bacterial protease and sodium metabisulfite. Analysis of the volumetric characteristics highlighted that bacterial enzymes gave higher values of specific volume and surface area. Regarding the structure of the hard biscuits, sodium metabisulfite produced a more uniform structure with fewer and smaller pockets as compared with the samples treated with proteases.

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