Development of gluten-free cakes with the addition of methylcellulose and xanthan gum

Abstract

The removal of gluten results in many baking problems and many gluten-free products currently available in the market are of low quality. The addition of hydrocolloids, however, is an option to improve technological characteristics. The objective of this study was to evaluate the influence of the addition of methylcellulose and xanthan gum on the technological characteristics of gluten-free cakes made with 100% rice flour. Cakes using hydrocolloids at different concentrations were developed through an experimental design that evaluated technological features such as specific volume, crumb hardness and overall quality score. Mathematical models were obtained to describe the hardness and the score of cakes as a function of the addition of xanthan and methylcellulose. The smallest value of crumb hardness of the cakes was obtained when concentrations of 0.4% xanthan and 2% methylcellulose were added. With regards to the score, the highest value was obtained with the lowest levels of hydrocolloids, whose formulation contained 0.2% xanthan gum and 1% methylcellulose. It can be concluded that the addition of xanthan gum and methylcellulose enabled the development of a gluten-free cake with a softer crumb that presents technological quality attributes similar to that of a wheat cake.