Spreading a Little Sweetness

Spreads based on fruit, nuts, honey and dairy fall under the category of sweet spreads. Sweet spreads star in some of the most-popular sandwich combinations, and also add appeal to bakery items, ice cream and confections. The same products also accent savory applications as ingredients in marinades, glazes and sauces.

Fruitful options 

Fruit-based spreads include a wide range of products distinguished by the presence or absence of fruit pieces, the size of the fruit pieces and the composition. In many cases, these products are held to a standard of identity outlined in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). Jelly is made from the strained or filtered juice of one or more fruits. According to 21 CFR 150.140, juice can be extracted from fresh, frozen or canned fruit. Juice has to comprise at least 45% of the formulation, and the nutritive sweetener is limited to 55% on a dry basis. The soluble solids content of the fruit jelly must be at least 65%.

Fruit preserves and jams are described in 21 CFR 150.160. Unlike jellies, preserves and jams are made from crushed or puréed fruit, and the standards are based on fruit as opposed to juice. Fruits are placed in one of two groups, depending on the minimum amount of the fruit required in the product, either 45% or 47%. The balance of the composition is very similar to jelly, with up to 55% nutritive sweetener allowed, as well as pectin, spice, recovered flavor essence and aids for processing and shelf life. The minimum soluble solids must be 65%. The distinction between jam, preserves and conserves can be the size of the fruit pieces in the finished product, but the terms are sometimes used interchangeably. Marmalade usually refers to a citrus jam that includes the peel.

Smooth, spreadable fruit butters are made of a blend of fruit, fruit juice and sugar. Fruits listed in 21 CFR 150.110 are apple, apricot, grape, peach, pear, plum, prune and quince. A fruit butter contains at least five parts fruit to two parts nutritive sweetener. Fruit butters have the same allowed ingredients as jellies and jams, but can contain fruit juice. Fruit butters must be at least 43% soluble solids.

Fruit curda rich spread or topping made from eggs, butter, sugar and juice, usually of citrus fruitshas no standard of identity. The texture comes from the emulsion of the eggs and butter.

Jammin with pectins 

A pectin gel creates the body of jam and jelly. Pectin falls into two broad categories: high methoxyl (HM), with a degree of esterification greater than 50%; and low methoxyl (LM), with a degree of esterification of less than 50%. HM and LM pectins use different mechanisms to achieve the desired texture, but both form a gel when areas of the pectin molecule form junction zones. For HM pectin, this happens when it loses its ionization at a low pH, and is dehydrated by a high concentration of sugar. LM pectin depends less on pH and sugar solids for gelation, but relies on divalent ions, such as calcium, to form ionic bonds within the pectin molecule. A wide range of pectin ingredients is available; the selection will depend on the product and the process, including the systems pH, Brix, availability of calcium ions, and the set time and temperature desired.

The Brix of standard of identity products is most suitable for HM pectins. When you are above 55 °Brix and below a certain pH level, those are the conditions that are ideal for HM pectin to contribute texture. Typically, when you are at 55 °Brix or lower, you are forced into looking at other alternatives like LM pectin, says Tim Missell, business development manager, hydrocolloids, Cargill Texturizing Solutions, Minneapolis. The LM pectin is going to do a much better job at giving you a spreadable texture at lower Brix.

Many factors should be considered when selecting the usage level of pectin, notes Firth Whitehouse, senior food applications scientist, Cargill Texturizing Solutions: With HM pectin, usage level is going to depend on what texture you want; if you dont want a hard texture you can use less pectin. With LM pectin, texture will also depend on the type and amount of added calcium and how much calcium is available in your fruit. Once the optimum type and level of pectin are selected, the pectin needs to be properly hydrated for full functionality.

Sweet things 

The composition of the sweetener in fruit spreads not only impacts product sweetness, but also texture and shelf life. Some sugars dry better than others and have varying relative sweetness levels. Glucose, about 60% sweetness relative to sucrose, requires the most water and is the most likely to crystallize, explains Bill Haddad, vice president of technical services, American Fruit Processors, Pacoima, CA. If you make a jam that is high in glucose, it can actually crystallize in the product on the shelf. Fructose gives you a very good sweetness, about 1.4 times the sweetness of sucrose, and doesnt crystallize like glucose does. However, fructose can also get very brittle when it dries up, so when you try to put pectin in, you may get a much-firmer spread. A little bit of glucose helps to keep that texture nice and smooth and soft so you can spread it.

Fruit-based sweeteners are used when manufacturers want to avoid putting refined sugar on the label. Haddad explains that the fruit concentrates used as sweeteners have a mild flavor and low color due to fruit selection, loss of volatile flavors during evaporation and charcoal filtration. For example, without charcoal filtration, apple juice is amber and, if you are trying to make a raspberry spread using an apple juice as the sweetener, you can end up with a reddish-brown as opposed to a red color, he says.

The fruit blend used in the concentrate depends in part on the composition of the sugars required, and may contain pineapple, peach, pear, apple and sometimes grape. Haddad says grape is neutral in flavor, but kosher issues limit applications. Pineapple juice is high in acid as well as sugar, and ion exchange can remove the acid for a syrup similar to high-fructose corn syrup. Every fruit has a different sugar profile, he adds. By knowing all of these sugar compositions, you can blend them to achieve any sugar profile you want.

Nutty spreads 

Peanut butter has been available nationally for 100 years and is defined by a standard of identity. It must contain at least 90% peanuts, according to 21 CFR 164.150. The balance can include seasonings, such as salt, sugar and natural flavors, vegetable oil for easier spreading, and stabilizers. Fat content must not exceed 55%. Spreads with less than 90% peanuts are called peanut spreads, and are considered nutritionally equivalent to peanut butter by meeting the guidelines in 21 CFR 102.23. Adding small amount of partially or fully hydrogenated vegetable oil will prevent the oil from separating to the top. Peanuts are roasted prior to grinding to give peanut butter its characteristic flavor. Sandwich spreads are also made from sunflower seeds, soy nuts and tree nuts, including almonds and cashews.

Some of the terms used for nut-based spreads depend on the country and supplier. In general, a praline is a paste of a roasted nut and may or may not be sweetened. Natural nut butters are usually not stabilized, and require stirring before use. According to the Hazelnut Council, Jersey City, NJ, products called nut butters in the United States would be called nut pastes in Europe, with the sweetened pastes referred to as pralines.

Finely ground, sweetened pastes of dark-roasted hazelnuts have several applications, notes Maral Barsoumian, marketing president, Amoretti, Oxnard, CA. The sweetened paste can be used as a layer in rolled and sliced cakes, under a layer of buttercream frosting, or as one of several fillings. The same ingredient can be piped into a hollow chocolate shell as a filling, or as a flavoring in ice cream and gelato. Care during roasting is critical: A single burnt nut can negatively impact the flavor of the batch. Roasting may also impact the pastes shelf life in terms of oxidation, and the loss or extension of shelf life will depend on the specific process.

As a spread, the smooth paste can be used alone or blended with chocolate. Barsoumian suggests that the sweetness can balance that of the chocolate. If the chocolate is sweetened, then an unsweetened paste would be selected.

According to the Hazelnut Councils Hazelnut Applications and Usage: A Guide for Food Professionals, hazelnut paste lowers the melting point of chocolate for a creamier mouthfeel.

Almonds also work well in sweet spreads. Application suggestions from the Almond Board of California, Modesto, include: vanilla almond butter, spicy chocolate almond butter with chili powder and cocoa powder, and chocolate almond butter calzones with a blend of almond butter and bittersweet chocolate as a filling. The organization also recommends almond butter as a ganache or filling, or as an ingredient in a candy coating.

Honey variety 

Honey, a supersaturated solution of sugars (primarily fructose and glucose), has the sweetness, flavor and color characteristic of its floral source. Liquid honey is prone to crystallization, particularly at lower moisture contents or in varietals with a higher amount of glucose relative to fructose. Creamed, or whipped, honey is often used in spread applications. According to the Dyce process, liquid honey is heated and then cooled after seeding it with chilled honey crystals, resulting in a spreadable honey with many small glucose crystals.

Precisely the thing that makes honey so appealing, the fact that it is a very natural sweetener, often leads to certain steps that have to be taken to make honey compatible with other foods, says Bruce Wolk, marketing director, National Honey Board, Firestone, CO. Keep in mind that honey contains naturally occurring enzymes, including amylase and invertase, so it requires heat treatment to denature the enzymes prior to going into products such as honey butter.

According to Wolk, a processor typically sources honey in one of two ways: to a color or flavor specification, or as a specific varietal. The color of honey ranges from water-white to dark-amber. Wolk recommends using a lower-cost, darker honey for applications where color is not an issue. Plus, different grades or varieties of honey will have a different flavor profile, some being sweeter and some being more pungent, he says. You have a very broad variety of honeys that you can blend to flavor, color and cost.

Varietal honeys hold much potential as ingredients. A really distinct honey like buckwheat, which has a really dark, molasses-like flavor, will come through, says Mani Niall, test kitchen director, Just Desserts, San Francisco. Even subtle varietals, like star thistle, lavender, fireweed and tupelo, surprise people. Just pick a region of the country, and theres a honey that surprises people because its so smooth and not as overwhelmingly sweet as they think of honey.

Niall advises formulators to experiment with different honeys and levels to find the best fit for their product. Weve really grown up in a country that thinks of honey as a one-note thing. Whether its clover honey, alfalfa, buckwheat or orange blossom, we think of it as medium-amber and sweet and thick. However, he says, tupelo is pourable, it never crystallizes. Buckwheat it so dark that some people use it instead of molasses. Theres so much variety.

Dairy selections 

Sweet dairy spreads can be based on butter, spreadable cheeses or sweetened condensed milk, as with dulce de leche. Sharon Gerdes, technical support consultant, Dairy Management, Inc., Rosemont, IL, says the flavor of butter blends well with the sweet notes of honey, maple syrup, brown sugar and cinnamon. For creating a spread, she notes that whipping butter improves pliability, making it easily spreadable at refrigerated temperatures.

Gerdes explains that traditional butter contains at least 80% milkfat, and either contains 1.6% to 1.7% salt, or is unsalted. Some manufacturers may prefer to use unsalted butter in sweet spreads. This product has a narrower shelf lifeup to two weeks refrigerated, vs. up to two months refrigerated for salted butter, she says. Food manufacturers might want to store their butter frozen, which extends the shelf life up to five months for unsalted butter and six to nine months for unsalted butter. She advises that frozen butter should be softened prior to use, not melted, which will alter the crystalline structure of the fat. One solution is to create a separate tempering room where butter can be thawed to an appropriate temperature for whipping, she says.

Dairy spreads include a wide range of natural cheeses, such as cream cheese, Neufchâtel and mascarpone, as well as pasteurized process cheese spreads and cold-pack cheeses, Gerdes says. Typically, various water-retaining ingredients, such as gums, gelatin and algin, are allowed, not to exceed 0.8% of the finished weight. The standard of identity for plain cream cheese in 21 CFR 133.133 lists a minimum milk-fat level of 33%, maximum moisture of 55%, and limits the stabilizer to 0.5%. Cream cheese with other ingredients, such as dried fruit, is covered in 21 CFR 133.134 and includes the higher level of stabilizer.

Hydrocolloids provide a valuable role in cream cheese: The three hydrocolloids that are commonly used are locust bean gum, xanthan gum and guar gum to provide texture and prevent syneresis, says Robert Loesel, dairy technical leader, Cargill Texturizing Solutions, Atlanta. Locust bean gum needs to be heated to approximately 175°F to fully hydrate, and typically there is a heating step to remove the whey after the gum is added to the fat-protein mass after fermentation and centrifugation.

In cream-cheese spreads that are low-fat or contain added moisture from fruit, hydrocolloids play an even bigger role in tying up moisture to stabilize the product, says Loesel. In low-fat formulations, you are requiring the gums to do more body-building, and you are probably using the gums with some added protein to replace the fat, he says. With a standardized product, the level is 0.5%, and when you get down to the very low-fat and nonfat cream cheeses, you are at a nonstandardized product and you can add more than 0.5% gums.

Dulce de leche is a sweet concoction from Argentina that can be used as a topping, spread or dessert. In its simplest form, it can be made by the slow heating of sweetened condensed milk, reducing it to the desired viscosity as the sugars caramelize. Dulce de leche is often used as a flavoring and topping for ice cream, but can also be used as a filling or frosting for baked goods.

Making jellies jam 

Several consumer trends make room for creative development in the sweet-spread category. Ethnic cuisines are becoming more mainstream, allowing for new flavors and feeling factors in spreads, including the use of hot sauce in sweet spreads.

Used at a very low percentage, the capsicums and fermented flavors can round-off certain aspects of the sweet item, says Jason Gronlund, executive chef, director of culinary services and ingredient services, McIlhenny Company/TABASCO® Brand Products, Avery Island, LA. Like with cinnamon, it will give you a heat perception that is all about the cinnamon and enhances like an Atomic Fireball flavor or Red Hots. The result is different with chocolate, as it deepens the flavor and makes the chocolate more of a bitter or heavier cacao flavor. Fruit items will get a great finish that leaves the consumer looking for more.

Gronlund says a general Scoville heat unit (SHU) delivered in the product is insufficient for predicting the perception of heat. Heat is distributed differently by the carrier that you use in the development, he says. Low fat will give you a front heat delivery at a lower level. As you increase the fat, you will need to slightly increase the heat with each degree that you take it up. Fat encapsulates the capsicums, and it is not until oral enzymes and heat separate the two that it will give you a rear heat delivery. The fun part is planning where you want the heat and then deliver it.

Also, using an exotic spread is an easy way to make an ordinary dish upscale. Ginger is very popular in Australia in spread applications. It pairs well with tropical fruits such as mango, pineapple and coconut, as well as dates and nuts, explains Astor Chin-Lyn, U.S. sales manager, Buderim Ginger America, Inc., Mahwah, NJ. When formulating a fruit spread with ginger, keep it simple, such as apple and ginger, and keep the level of ginger just above the threshold level to allow the other flavors to come through, he recommends.

Ginger has a strong, pungent flavor, so this limits its usage level, says Pam Fielder, research and development, Buderim Ginger, Yandina, Australia. On its own, a typical level in a fruit spread would be 25% syruped or glacé ginger, or 6% to 8% fresh puréed ginger, or a suitable combination of these. These two forms of ginger impart very different flavor profiles to the spread, the fresh puréed ginger being a more pungent, sharp taste, while the syruped ginger imparts a milder, smoother taste. If you are combining ginger with other fruits, a typical starting point would be 8% to 10% syruped ginger. She suggests adding some fresh ginger purée for a ginger hit. The flavor of the spread may take up to several weeks to fully develop.

Berries add a level of sophistication, as well as regional appeal. The U.S. Highbush Blueberry Council, Folsom, CA, suggests honey spreads with blueberry or blueberry and ginger. Product sightings with blueberry filling include blueberry-filled cookies and blueberry-filled marshmallow treats. Blueberry is also used in a reduced-fat cream-cheese spread. Blackberry and ginger preserves and blackberry-lime jam are among recipes supplied by the Oregon Raspberry and Blackberry Commission, Corvallis, OR.

Added flavors improve the overall flavor of the spread, particularly ones with health and wellness in mind. Flavors for spreads are used to enhance, characterize and mask ingredients in the food product, says Jon Seighman, sweet goods applications director, Givaudan Flavors, Cincinnati. In strawberry jellies, flavors can enhance natural fruits to taste fresher and less cooked. Nonallergen peanut flavors may also be added to a soy spread to make it taste more like the peanut butter we knew as kids. Additionally, flavors can mask the aftertaste from soy protein or nonnutritive sweeteners. Flavors will be released differently from a spread containing fat or protein, such as cream cheese and nut butters, than from a water-based system like fruit spreads. Further, he adds, the viscosity of the spread will affect the release of the flavor in the mouth. 

Karen Grenus, Ph.D., has eight years combined experience in applied research and product development in the area of dry blends for savory applications. She holds a doctorate degree from Purdue University in Agricultural and biological Engineering.