Technological and Structural Properties of Oat Cookies Incorporated with Fructans (Agave tequilana Weber)

The beneficial effect of agave fructans on health has been demonstrated gaining popularity as a new prebiotic and functional food ingredient, however, their role as an ingredient and their technological properties is scarcely reported. This work studied the structural and quality features of doughs and cookies added with agave fructans “AF” and compared to systems added with chicory fructans “CF” or without fructans (“WF”) added, to analyse the effect of the chemical structure due to the fructan-type added. For doughs, it was found that AF lowered the water adsorption, causing a short development time and the highest stability during kneading. The texture profile analysis and rheological tests revealed that AF increased springiness and cohesiveness. For cookies, the crumb and lightness were evaluated using a computer vision system. Among the samples, AF promoted a darker and shiny crust and a more homogeneous and compact microstructure. X-ray diffraction analysis demonstrated that AF had the highest values of crystallinity. In order to provide more information about the distribution of carbohydrates (aldoses and ketoses) and gluten proteins in the cookies, a method was developed to specifically stain these molecules, and it successfully described the effect of the fructans incorporated into doughs and cookies. Results from confocal laser scanning microscopy illustrated differences in the distribution of the biopolymers stained. This research provided an improved understanding of the AF addition on the technological properties and the structure–functionally relationship of doughs and cookies, beyond the nutraceutical applications attributed to the AF.