Possibility of Replacing Sugar with Apple Puree in Muffins

Muffins are a popular pastry product around the world, but due to their high sucrose content, they are high in calories. To meet customer demand for muffins with less sugar content, in this research, sugar was replaced with apple puree in different percentages (0–100%). For replacement levels between 0 and 50%, the physical, textural, and rheological properties did not show significant changes compared to the control sample. Higher levels of replacement (50–100%) led to changes in some quality attributes: specific gravity and loss on ripening increased significantly, height and volume decreased significantly (from 49.66 ± 0.02 to 43.36 ± 0.12, respectively, and from 60.00 ± 0.04 to 51.00 ± 0.05), springiness decreased (from 0.689 ± 0.01 to 0.504 ± 0.00), and cohesiveness did not show significant differences. The results obtained suggest that successful reduction in sucrose in muffins is possible by using apple puree at replacement levels of up to 50%, thus maintaining a similar textural quality to muffins with sugar.