Scientists may have found a way to make pastries healthier without sacrificing taste

A healthier version of the classic sausage roll could eventually become a reality as Scottish researchers develop a plant-based alternative to traditional pastry fats.Scientists at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland, recently reached a new milestone toward making a healthier sausage roll without sacrificing flaky pastry by moving their experiment from the lab to their food industry partner’s kitchen, the university announced in a news release.“By taking innovative food science out of the lab into the kitchen and testing it with everyday consumers, it has the potential to make the nation’s favorite snacks healthier and make a genuine difference to our health and wellbeing,” said Stephen Euston, a professor working on the pastry research.Sausage rolls are a British favorite that consist of seasoned sausage meat baked in puff pastry.“Around 10-15 million sausage rolls are sold a week in the UK, and the bestselling version contains 11 to 12.4 grams of saturated fat,” Euston said.

“That’s more than 60% of the recommended daily limit for adults.”The scientists’ goal, Euston said, is to produce a pastry with the same flavor and texture people are used to, but with less saturated fat.“We’re focused on sausage rolls, but this also applies to other baked goods that contain laminated pastry, such as croissants, Danish pastries and sweet or savory turnovers,” he said.Making flaky pastry is a notoriously tricky process that typically involves butter or lard layered between sheets of dough.“When the pastry bakes, steam forces those layers apart and gives you that flaky texture people expect,” Euston said.“Simply replacing the fat with a healthier oil doesn’t work, because liquid oils lack the structure needed to separate the pastry layers.”Plant-derived oils – such as sunflower and rapeseed – are normally liquid at room temperature.

Euston and his team are using a process called oleogelation to make the plant-based oil...