Partial replacement of wheat flour by pecan nut expeller meal on bakery products. Effect on muffins quality

The objective of the present work was to evaluate the effect of replacing up to 40 g/100 g wheat flour by pecan nut expeller meal on baking quality of a typical muffin formulation. Baked samples were subjected to several assays: yield, height of the specimen, color, crumb moisture, texture (TPA), microstructure by image analysis. Replacement of 30 g/100 g of wheat flour by expeller significantly height of the product. Also hardness was greatly reduced (52.4%) when 30 g/100 g of PEM was included. The addition of PEM lead to a darker crumb, the browning index was 38% higher when 40 g/100 g of wheat flour was replaced by expeller. Muffins showed a very good sensorial acceptance, scoring 7.9 into a 9-point hedonic scale. Thus a by-product from pecan oil industry was successfully employed in muffins, adding value, and broadening its potential applications in other bakery products, resulting in economic benefits.