Effect of emulsifiers on the quality of cakes and cookies

Snack food has gained popularity worldwide. Cakes and cookies are the important commodities consumed as snack food by all age groups. These are viewed a major source of nutrition by many people. Their function is seen as being complementary, by many to other foods and primarily they do provide nutrition. Flour with the low protein contents is recommended for the cookies production but when we use flour with high protein contents some physical defects i.e., increase in thickness, reduction in width and spread factor are produced in cookies. Similarly low quality cakes having low volume, hard texture are produced. In this research cakes and cookies were prepared from commercially available flour and 3 emulsifiers Glyceryl mono stearate (GMS), Soylecithin and Sodium stearyol-2-lactylate were incorporated for the improvement of aforesaid physical characteristics. Then the cakes and cookies were subjected to chemical physical and sensory evaluation. The proximate analysis of commercial flour was made and the moisture, protein, fat, fiber, ash and NFE were 10.2%, 10.15%, 1.2%, 0.34%, 0.76%, and 77.45% respectively. The Proximate analysis of cookies showed that protein, fiber and ash contents of all treatments were because of the same raw material. However, increase in fat content was observed by the addition of emulsifiers. Mean fat contents ranged from 23.25 percent in T1, T9 23.75% (cookies containing maximum emulsifier). Similarly there was an increase in the mean of moisture content from 3.12 percent (standard cookies) to 3.66 percent in T10 due to the property of emulsifiers to bind water. The results of physical study revealed a significant effect of emulsifiers on the spread factor of the cookies. There was a substantial increase in spread factor from 42.8 (standard cookies) to 52.8 (cookies with 1 percent lecithin). Spread ratio showed that the soylecithin proved better than sodium stearyol-2-lactylate (SSL) and glyceryl mono stearate. Sensory score showed that the emulsifiers improved the overall acceptability of cookies. During storage studies a decline absorbed in quality scores for all the sensory attributes i.e., color, flavor, taste, texture and overall acceptability. T3 having glyceryl mono stearate at the rate of 1% proved best treatment. Similarly the cakes were prepared from the commercial wheat flour and above three emulsifiers were incorporated according to the respective treatments. The proximate analysis of cakes showed that moisture contents were 24.05 to 25.95% protein content were 7.63% to 7.65%. Fat contents were 30.1% to 30.90% fiber contents were 0.53% to 0.55%. Ash contents were 0.85% to 0.88% NFE contents were 36.82% to 34.17%. The proximate analysis showed that protein, ash, and fiber contents were nearly same while fat and moisture contents were increased due to incorporation of emulsifiers. The results of sensory evaluation showed that emulsifiers increased the volume, and improved texture, eating and keeping qualities of the cakes. The sodium stearyol-2-lactylate at the rate of 0.05% level proved best for cakes volume, texture, eating and keeping qualities.