99 Cake and cookie micro testing method for use in screening experimental ingredients.

G. CORLISS, T. Paeschke, I. Bishay, and E. Gaite. Monsanto, Mount Prospect, IL 60056.

The need for micro testing methods is necessary because experimental ingredients are often available only in small quantities. Micro-methods were developed to evaluate sucrose substitutes in cakes and cookies and statistically correlated with AACC methods for cakes (method #10-90) and cookies (method #10-53, 10-54). Erythritol, sorbitol, maltitol, isomalt, 18DE maltodextrin, and fructo-oligosaccharide were used as sucrose substitutes to conduct the study. The micro-methods reduced the amount of sucrose substitute necessary to evaluate functionality in cakes and cookies by 90 percent. Typically, baking on a micro scale does not provide good predictive information because mixing methods and heat transfer during baking can be substantially different. To understand these differences, cakes and cookies prepared by the micro and AACC methods were evaluated with various functional tests. The results of the two methods were statistically correlated. For cakes, bake loss and volume had correlation coefficients of 0.89 and 0.82 respectively, between the two methods. For cookies, correlation coefficients above 0.89 were obtained for bake loss, crumb pH, height, diameter, color and dough hardness. Predictive baking tests with small amounts of ingredients can be used to effectively screen experimental ingredients in cakes and cookies with these micro-methods.