Effect of Sucrose Particle Size, Sucrose Content, and Water Content on Melt Resistant Chocolate Made via a Sugar Network

open_access
Open Access
Author:
Rosenberger, Claire Margaret
Area of Honors:
Chemical Engineering
Degree:
Bachelor of Science
Document Type:
Thesis
Thesis Supervisors:
John Neil Coupland, Thesis Supervisor
Dr. Enrique Daniel Gomez, Thesis Honors Advisor
Keywords:
Melt Resistant Chocolate
Heat Resistant Chocolate
Sugar Network
Sucrose
Chocolate
Water in Chocolate
Sugar Skeleton
Abstract:
The creation of heat resistant chocolate would improve consumption in the summer months and in warm, tropical climates (Killian and Coupland, 2011; Dicolla, 2009). Adding water to chocolate can create a sugar network held together by capillary forces, which can increase heat resistance in chocolate products (Stortz and Marangoni, 2011). Model chocolates made with two sucrose sizes (12 μm and 60 μm), two sucrose contents (20% and 40% by mass), and three water contents (0%, 1%, 10% by mass of sucrose) underwent a melt test to determine the effects of sugar particle size on the melt resistance of chocolate. Water content was shown to have a statistically significant effect on the melt resistance of the samples, where the highest water content corresponded to the least melt resistant chocolate. This effect might have occurred because excess water may have dissolved sugar, preventing it from participating in the sugar network or because there was not enough sucrose surface area to adsorb all of the water, leading to excess water dispersed in the cocoa butter. After qualitative hexane immersion study, it does not appear that a comprehensive sugar network formed throughout the chocolate models, making the effects of sucrose particle size irrelevant; if no sugar network formed, then the size of the sugar particles could not affect the network.