Use wheat flour-lipid and waxy maize starch-lipid composites in wire-cut formula cookies.

Plant carbohydrate-derived products are becoming new alternatives that can be used in calorie-reduced systems and in baked items such as cookies and crackers. The use of these formulations to replace shortening offers a variety of benefits, including improved textural properties.

Carbohydrate-based products are capable of creating a carbohydrate-water network that mimics the texture of fat. They are more economical options than already-existing fat substitutes. In addition, these products are generally recognized as safe.

The goal of USDA-ARS scientists was to evaluate the effects of replacing shortening with two different carbohydrate-lipid composites: a wheat flour-lipid composite (WFLC) and a waxy maize starch-lipid composite (WMSLC). The researchers wanted to determine the impact of these composites on the attributes of wire-cut formula cookies. As you may know, these cookies are based on a typical commercial cookie base formula in the United States. An example would be a chocolate chip cookie without the chocolate chips. Wire-cut formula cookies were prepared according to AACC Method 10-53 (AACC 2000). Starch-lipid composites were substituted for 18%, 30% and 42% of the shortening in the formulas.

The investigators evaluated the effects and hardness characteristics, as well as the color indices of the cookies. The composites reduced cookie spread and hardness, and they also increased stack height, moisture and water activity. Cookies with the WFLC were smaller, thicker, softer and lighter in color than cookies with the WMSLC. Cookies made with both composites were softer than the control cookies.

Adding glucose increased the cookie diameter, chroma, hue angle and Hunter L* values--a scale of white to black (grays). The cookies with the composites became softer than the controls. This textural characteristic suggests that WFLC and WMSLC can offer new perspectives on fat reduction in a dry baked product platform. Many fat reduction (particularly fat replacement) systems in cookies yield a cookie with harder texture than the original full formula. The starch-lipid composites do not have this adverse function in wire-cut formula cookies at the concentrations studied.

Researchers found that starch-lipid composites functioned in this formulation to reduce fat and calories without producing a harder texture in dry baked sweet goods. Further information. Charles S. Gaines, USDA-ARS Soft Wheat Quality Research, Director, Soft Wheat Quality Laboratory, Room 107A, 1680 Madison Ave., Wooster, OH 44691; phone: [phone]; fax: [phone]; email: [e-mail].