The role of different types of margarine in various baked products is subtly different. In cakes, margarine is an essential factor in incorporating finely dispersed air bubbles, which imparts fine crumb structure and delicate eating properties to the baked product. It helps increase the cake volume by shortening the strands of gluten, which in the absence of fat would form a tough mesh-like structure. In short pastry, a rather high fat content functions by preventing the hydration and subsequent toughening of the wheat protein. In puff pastry, the function of pastry margarine is to act as a barrier between the dough layers during rolling and prevent them from fusing together. This prevents the formation of three dimentional structure between the gluten protein in each thin dough layer during baking (Pederson, 1988), resulting in the characteristic light flaky texture.

Main Researcher: Noor Lida Habi Mat Dian