Functional characterization of steam jet-cooked buckwheat flour as a fat replacer in cake-baking.

Background: With rising consumer awareness of obesity, the food industry has a market-driven impetus to develop low-fat or fat-free foods with acceptable taste and texture. Fancy buckwheat flour was thus subjected to steam jet-cooking and the performance of the resulting product in cake-baking was evaluated as a fat replacer.

Results: Steam jet-cooking caused structural breakdown and starch gelatinization of buckwheat flour, thus increasing its water hydration properties. In the pasting measurements, steam jet-cooked buckwheat flour exhibited high initial viscosity, while no peak viscosity was observed. Also, the suspensions of steam jet-cooked buckwheat flour exhibited shear-thinning behaviors, which were well characterized by the power law model. When shortening in cakes was replaced with steam jet-cooked buckwheat gels, the specific gravity of cake batters significantly increased, consequently affecting cake volume after baking. However, shortening replacement with steam jet-cooked buckwheat up to 20% by weight appeared to be effective in producing cakes as soft as the control without volume loss.

Conclusion: When buckwheat flour was thermomechanically modified by steam jet-cooking, it was successfully incorporated into cake formulations for shortening up to 20% by weight, producing low-fat cakes with comparable volume and textural properties to the control.