Making Cakes and Cookies Healthier

Around the world various initiatives have been and continue to be implemented to improve the overall healthiness of common foods. These interventions have led to ever increasing pressures on food manufacturers to play a major role in meeting defined nutritional objectives.

As an important part of the food sector, the role of bakers in improving consumer diets has inevitably been highlighted. Targets to reduce salt levels in bread are the most visible of government-led nutrition interventions. In the UK, progressive voluntary reductions of salt levels in foods means that salt level in UK breads are now around half the level that they were 25 years ago. Other countries have followed the UK lead; in many cases, with mandatory targets for reducing salt levels in bread and other foods. The most recent focus for many government-led interventions is on tackling what many health professionals have defined as the “global obesity crisis”. Increasing numbers of consumers around the world are being classified as overweight and obese with increasing incidences of type II diabetes, heart-related illnesses and a range of other medical conditions which are placing greater and greater strains on health services. The overall energy density of foods and the quantity being consumed has attracted much criticism from health professionals. Reducing sugar levels in foods and drinks has become a ‘hot’ topic and fat levels in many processed foods remain of significant concern.

The roles of sugar in cake making

A key question for cake bakers is “How to meet the growing demands for healthier bakery products?” Reducing the sugar level in a soft drink is often a case of taking some sugar out of the formulation and replacing the lost sweetness with a high intensity sweetener. This is not a trivial exercise but does not have the same degree of complexity that would be faced by bakers contemplating the same type of formulation change. A simple example of the problem that bakers face when contemplating sugar reduction is illustrated in Figures 1, (a) and (b). In this cake example, less recipe sugar (1 (b)) has clearly changed the product appearance, crust colour and dimensions. Internally the crumb structure will be more dense and less aerated which in turn, will have changed texture and eating qualities. These changes occur because in cakes starch is a major contributor to the structure of cake quality though the changes commonly described as gelatinisation. This process occurs when starch and water are heated together, such as occurs in the oven when cakes are baked. The process of gelatinisation makes an important contribution to controlling the expansion of the gases trapped in the batter and in turn, cake volume and structure.

The temperature at which the gelatinisation process occurs depends in part, on the ratio of starch to water in the batter. The gelatinisation process in cakes is also significantly affected by the level of recipe sugar. Sugar raises the gelatinisation process keeping the batter fluid for longer and controlling the expansion of the structure. The higher the recipe sugar level, the higher the temperature at which the gelatinisation process takes place. In order to deliver specific cake structures and textures, bakers ‘balance’ sugar and water levels in their recipes. Another important contribution of sugar in cake making is the contribution of sugar to shelf-life. As a ‘preservative’, sugar lowers the water activity in the baked product and so extends the mould-free shelf-life of the product. Reducing sugar levels also contributes negatively to sensory shelf-life, with cake products losing their tendereating character faster in storage.

The Reformulation Conundrum

When considering sugar reduction to deliver healthier baked products we quickly reach what may be described as the ‘Reformulation Conundrum’. For example, a simple reduction in recipe the sugar content of a cake or cookie, without any other recipe changes will increase the overall energy density of the product, not least because the proportion of fat in the final product has increased. This is the result of fat contributing over twice the energy level of the carbohydrate we call sugar. Taking fat out of the cake recipe to reduce the product energy density seems an obvious step but in doing so we start to re-adjust the proportions of the all of the other ingredients. If our original premise was to meet a sugar reduction and energy density target, the reduction in fat level may compromise the sugar reduction target. Not to mention what we may have done to the product appearance, taste, texture and shelf-life.

The consequences of the Reformulation Conundrum for many baked products are considerable because of the functionality of those ingredients, sugar and fat, which are often the targets for reduction. Ingredients designed to ‘replace’ sugar and fat are commonly available but do not offer the same degree of technical functionality in baked products. This is not to say that they do not have a place in formulating healthier bakery products, rather to indicate that ‘replacers’ are only part of the answer, their use requires careful thought because of the many other reformulation issues that will be highlighted. In terms of reducing product energy, the options available to bakers are also limited. Water has no energy value but because of its ubiquitous contribution to bakery product texture and shelf-life, there are few real options for increasing product moisture levels. The class of products that does offer some opportunities in the manufacture of healthier bakery products are those encompassed by the term fibre. Such product are not unfamiliar to the bread baker, for example in the manufacture of wholemeal and seeded breads, and to cracker manufacturers. Less obvious to bakers may be the options for using fibre in the manufacture of fine bakery wares (cakes, cookies and pastries). The addition of fibre can contribute to a reduction in overall product energy density and assist in the delivery of both sugar and fat reductions, as shown by the example of new cake products in Figures 2 and 3.

Improving the healthiness of cookies

A number of the issues raised above for cake makers, are relevant to cookie manufacturers; both sugar and fat play significant roles in the delivery of the final product characters. Sugar makes major contributions to product thickness (by trapping expanding gases), to spread or flow and even to surface appearance (Figure 4). This means that attempts to reduce recipe sugar will require significant recipe and processing changes, as well as dealing with a similar re-formulation co- nundrum to that described for cakes. The use of high intensity sweeteners to maintain product sweetness still remains a challenge, not because of their potential breakdown under the harsh conditions delivered in a cookie oven. Recipe fat sparing using emulsifiers, present a viable option for reduced fat and energy density in cookie products. However, some fats, e.g. butter, play a major role in delivering flavour as well as texture, so that their reduction or replacement will require careful re-formulation.

Fibres are potentially more acceptable in the re-formulation of cookies since such products are not expected to have the ‘tender’ mouthfeel expected in cakes. While fibre products will make positive health contributions in cookie formulations, their ability to absorb water during mixing can lead to processing problems, along with the need to deliver a low final moisture content in the baked product. To be able to deliver the mixture of healthier formulation, ease of processing and low final moisture content to maintain a crisp eating product, represents a significant challenge for cookie manufacturers. The solutions may well need to extend to changing processing (e.g. mixing methods) and to augment existing baking arrangements to remove sufficient water by the end of baking. Cookies with high moisture contents can change in character postbaking; common problems are checking (seen as broken cookies in the pack) and even cookies which fold-over during storage. The baking of higher fibre cookies may well require that conventional baking arrangements are augmented with microwave or infrared heating arrangements to deliver consumer acceptable products.

Texture is the key to acceptance by consumers

In many parts of the world today, the consumption of bakery products is associated more with the pleasures of eating than the need to sustain life. This makes product appearance, eating quality and flavour particularly important. As long ago as 1970s the importance of texture in food acceptance by consumers was recognised. Researchers at that time emphasised that product texture was especially important in foods with bland flavours, a conclusion which is important today as we seek to reduce salt, sugar and fat, along with increasing fibre, because these are all changes which reduce the flavour of bakery products. More recent studies on food texture have shown that today’s consumers are equally sensitive and become concerned of the taste and texture of ‘traditional’ foods are compromised. It may be that the reduction of salt in bread is responsible for some of the continuing decline in bread consumption, though there is no direct evidence for such an assumption and many factors will influence consumers purchasing habits.

For a long time there has been concern over the use of the term ‘reduced’ when applied to foods. This can be seen as a criticism of existing product being ‘unhealthy’ but often it has a conscious and negative impact on consumer product acceptance. Researchers of the 1970s consider that using the term reduced could be seen as a “violation of consumer expectations” which in turn, led consumers to consider that they would be getting a poorer quality product. It may be that modern consumers are more ‘health conscious’ and will take a more positive view of reduced sugar and fat levels in baked products.

Innovation to change the nutritional profile of products carries with it risks for consumer acceptance. The increase in the consumption fibre-rich breads owes much to the technical innovations which deliver a product texture more akin to that of white bread. Such changes have enabled the potential delivery of fibre via bread to more consumer groups, including children who seldom like bread ‘with bits in it’. Modern consumers are certainly more positively disposed towards higher fibre in bakery products. Recent work in Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia, has highlighted the contribution of fibre sources to satiety (that is a feeling of fullness) and the value of fibres in appetite suppression. Is this an opportunity for the creation of new products by bakers?

Routes to developing healthier bakery products

Ultimately the manufacture of all bakery products requires the control of the complex relationship between ingredient qualities, ingredient quantities – the recipe – and the processing methods employed. This means that the role of processing in the creation and control of product structures and textures must be given equal consideration to that of ingredient choice and recipe when manufacturing heathier bakery products. The development process can be likened to working with an equal sided triangle as illustrated in Figure 5. The area enclosed by the triangle defines the space in which our target product sits. If we now change the choice of ingredients or the recipe we effectively change the shape of our triangle and the area enclosed by the triangle. If product is no longer centrally placed in the triangle, it is less robust to the impact of ingredient, recipe or process variability and may well fail in production. When setting out to define our heathier bakery product, we are effectively defining the area of the triangle with which we will work. This is, the product size, shape, appearance, nutritional qualities, taste, texture and shelf-life; probably we should also add cost. We probably know most about the nutritional profile and functionality, less so about the recipe choice with new products. Commonly we neglect the contribution that processing can make to delivery of our new healthier product. We tend to default to our accepted production methods, in part because we already have a plant making suitable

‘conventional’ products. However, processing innovation can often make a significant contribution in the manufacturer of healthier bakery products. Changing the processing dimension of Figure 5 can often enlarge the working area within the triangle or compensate for a compromise in recipe or ingredient choices.

It is too easy to see the pressures to reduce this or increase that nutrient in negative terms, an imposition that has to be reluctantly accepted, or even resisted. An alternative view is that such pressures present opportunities for the development of truly new products with genuinely healthier nutritional profiles. The key to such product development is through taking a holistic view of the manufacture of the product; that is not simply viewed as taking reducing a particular nutrient or just a case of adding a new magic ingredient. Innovative processing options can often deliver innovative products. +++

Author

Stan Cauvain is a Director and co-founder of BakeTran, an international consultancy providing technical services to bakeries, mills, and related ingredient and equipment suppliers. He is particularly active with new process innovation and product development. He has published many technical books and articles on baking and milling technology.