The Sensory and

Objective Evaluation of
Substituting Vegan
Alternatives for Eggs in
Brownies
Camille Figuereo and Katherine Scurato
 Clinical Condition: Veganism

➔ Do not eat animal products nor meat by-products

◆ Also, do not wear animal made clothing (leather, wool)
◆ Different levels of vegans
➔ Animal rights, environmental reasons, and health reasons
◆ Do not want to promote animal cruelty
◆ Many animal industries do practices that harm the environment
◆ Lower LDL cholesterol and lower blood pressure
● Beneficial for those who have cardiovascular disease

Craig, W. J. (2009). Health effects of vegan diets.

Fields, H., Ruddy, B., Wallace, M. R., Shah, A., Millstine, D., & Marks, L. (2016). How to Monitor and Advise Vegans to Ensure Adequate Nutrient Intake.
Radnitz, C., Beezhold, B., & Dimatteo, J. (2015). Investigation of lifestyle choices of individuals following a vegan diet for health and ethical reasons.
Food Product: Brownies
● Not many vegan desserts on the market
○ Most desserts contain milk, butter, eggs
○ Vegans have restrictive diet -> not many food industries cater to
vegan diets
○ Introducing vegan desserts gives vegans more food options to
enjoy
● Found recipe with just one product to replace: Eggs
○ Replaced eggs with applesauce, prunes, and mixture of black
beans and tofu
● General interest in veganism
○ Personally would like to be vegan
 Black beans ¼ cup

California Medium Prunes ½ cup

Recipe Double Acting Baking powder ¼ tsp

Eggs 2, large

Enriched all- purpose flour blended ½ cup

Granulated sugar 1 cup

Salt ¼ tsp

Silken tofu ¼ cup

Vanilla 1 tsp

Vegetable Oil ½ cup

Unsweetened Applesauce ½ cup (4 oz)

W, Juenessa. (2018). The Best Brownies.
Unsweetened Cocoa powder ⅓ cup
Procedure

1. Preheat oven to 350 F and grease bottom of 4 baking pans with vegetable oil
2. Mix vegetable oil and sugar well together
3. Add egg or egg substitute and vanilla and blend well together
4. In a separate bowl, add all dry ingredients together and mix
5. Add dry ingredients to the oil/sugar/ egg or egg substitute/vanilla mixture and use electric mixer to
blend together
6. Take batter and pour into baking pan, tap down the baking pan to disperse product
7. Bake until done (28-38 minutes). Use toothpick test to determine.
8. Let cool before cutting

W, Juenessa. (2018). The Best Brownies.

 Objective Procedures
1. Note the time of baking by using the toothpick test
and timer
2. Stack three brownies on top of one another, measure
height and divide by 3 to get average
3. Take a piece of brownie into mouth and count the
number of chews it takes to fully dissolve
Subjective
Procedure
1. Hold the sample in your mouth about 5
seconds.
2. Be sure to bring sample in contact with all
tasting areas.
3. Rinse your mouth with room temperature
water between samples
4. Wait at least 10 seconds between samples
5. Re-tasting once is permitted before
proceeding to the next sample.
Sensory Evaluations
Six Panelists were given a plate containing 4 samples of brownies*

On a scale of 1-9 (1 being the least and 9 being the most), panelists were asked to rank the brownies based
on 6 sensory evaluations

1. Appearance Interior
2. Appearance Exterior
3. Texture
4. Taste
5. Flavor
6. Overall Liking

*panelists did not know which brownie contained which variable. Brownies were labeled according to a
randomized set of numbers

416= Black bean & tofu 535= Applesauce 609= Prunes 732= Eggs (control)
Sensory Ballot and Plate
Comments from Panelists
● 416 (black bean and tofu) ● 609 (prunes)
○ Sweet and cherry flavor ○ Chunky sweet bits
○ Mushy, no structure ○ Bitter? Sour?
○ Dry and crumbly ○ Tastes like prunes/ molasses more
○ Super sweet but not super chocolatey than chocolate
● 535 (applesauce) ○ Brown sugar flavor
○ Not overly sweet, chewy ● 732 (control, eggs)
○ 2nd favorite! ○ Crispy top, nice chew
○ Very good flavor, a little too gooey in ○ Like crispy top, favorite
texture ○ Overall a perfect brownie but the
appearance should be more
smooth
 Brownies Freshly Out of the Oven
Eggs Black bean & Tofu
Prunes Applesauce
 Objective Results: Exterior Appearance
❖ All samples
showed statistical
difference to
control
❖ Slightly large error
bars for control
sample
❖ Prunes had
highest average

T- test: Control 0.01 0.00 0.01

 Objective Results: Interior Appearance

❖ Bean/tofu sample
showed least
statistical difference to
control
❖ Very large error bars
for control and
bean/tofu sample
➢ Unreliable?
❖ Highest average were
applesauce and
prunes
➢ Too gooey?

T- test: Control 0.82 0.12 0.07

 Objective Results: Texture

❖ Bean/tofu sample
ranked as very dry
❖ Bean/tofu sample
had high error bars
❖ Other 3 samples
seemed to show
similarities to
control

T- test: Control 0.04 0.53 0.36

Objective Results: Taste
❖ Applesauce
sample ranked
highest for
chocolate taste
❖ Rather large error
bars for all
samples
➢ Unreliable?
❖ Bean/tofu showed
most statistical
similarity to control
T- test: Control 0.80 0.36 0.02
Objective Results: Flavor

❖ Eggs ranked the

sweetest
❖ Applesauce in
second place
❖ Large error bars
➢ Common
trend

T- test: Control 0.46 0.68 0.54

 Objective Results: Overall Liking
❖ Panelists enjoyed the
control the most
❖ Second best ranked
was the applesauce
sample
➢ Applesauce also
showed most
statistical
similarities to
control
❖ Prunes scored the
lowest
➢ Not very well
liked!!
T- test: Control 0.01 0.19 0.00
Subjective Results: Time to Bake
Type of Egg Substitutions Time to Bake (minutes)

Control (egg) 28

Applesauce 38

Black beans/ tofu 28

Prunes 38
Subjective Results: Height
Type of Egg Substitutions Height (mm)

Control (egg) 5

Applesauce 7

Black beans/ tofu 3

Prunes 2
Subjective Results: Number of Chews
Type of Egg Substitutions Number of Chews

Control (egg) 9

Applesauce 6

Black beans/ tofu 5

Prunes 12
Nutrition
Fact
Labels
Discussion
● Initial predictions
○ Applesauce to be the most liked (incorrect)
○ Prune sample would be the least liked out of all (correct)
● Outcomes
○ Control was liked best overall
○ Applesauce was liked second best
○ Prunes was the least liked
○ High error bars= dispersed answers (mixed reviews)
● Surprised
○ Black bean/tofu was not liked that much overall
○ Test week did not work out (produced bad texture/taste)
● Went well
○ Found a better recipe
○ All pans went in at the same time
● Would do differently
○ Use less prunes (unpitted) and blend them more
○ Wait longer to brownies to cool down before cutting
○ Try combining variables to get more desirable outcomes Prunes mixture
Any Questions?
References:
Craig, W. J. (2009). Health effects of vegan diets. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition,89(5).
doi:10.3945/ajcn.2009.26736n

Fields, H., Ruddy, B., Wallace, M. R., Shah, A., Millstine, D., & Marks, L. (2016). How to Monitor and
Advise Vegans to Ensure Adequate Nutrient Intake.The Journal of the American Osteopathic
Association,116(2), 96. doi:10.7556/jaoa.2016.022

Perry, N., & Brandt, P. (2007). A Case Study on Cruelty to Farm Animals: Lessons Learned from the
Hallmark Meat Packing Case. Law Journal Library,106, 117

W, Juenessa. (2018). The Best Brownies. Genius Kitchen. Retrieved from

https://www.geniuskitchen.com/amp/recipe/the-best-brownies-54225