Pastry sauce with carob (Ceratonia siliqua) powder

Abstract

Introduction. The present research discusses the carob pastry sauce production without sugar addition and highlighting its functional and physico-chemical properties. Materials and methods. To evaluate the possibility of carob use in the production of pastry sauce, powder of carob pods and beans was introduced in the recipe of cocoa sweet pastry sauce. The functional and physico-chemical properties of the produced sauce were characterized in terms of rheology, chemical composition, sensory analysis, antioxidant activity, and total phenol content. Results and discussion. The incorporation of carob morphological parts (beans or pod pulp) in the pastry sauce recipe in order to replace the sugar and cocoa reduced its energy value by 60% compared to the original recipe (with cocoa and sugar). The addition of carob pod powder in the composition of the pastry sauce increased the content of Ca and Fe by 2.9 and 5.1 times, respectively. The biological value of sauce with carob pod powder showed an increase in terms of 1,1-Diphenyl-2-picryl-hydrazyl (DPPH) inhibition antioxidant activity up to 95.97% compared to 60% for control, and total phenol content up to 29.12 mg gallic acid equivalent (GAE) per g compared to 5.11 GAE/g for control. Addition of carob pod powder in sauce formulations has a positive influence on the rheological properties of the sauces, leading to the increase of their viscosity, as well as their stability to the increase of shear stress and shear rate. The sensory evaluation of sauces prepared with the addition of carob pod powder or carob bean powder showed that all sauces had a fine and homogeneous consistency, a pleasant flavor and smell characteristics of the added ingredients: the pastry sauce with carob pod powder had a specific smell and flavor of dark chocolate, and the pastry sauce with carob bean powder had a hint of caramel flavor. Conclusions. The incorporation of carob pod or bean powder in pastry sauces to replace cocoa and sugar, enhanced the quality and biological values of the sauce by increasing its mineral content, antioxidant activity, total phenol content, the consumer acceptance, decreasing at the same time energetical value of the product.