Physiochemical and sensory evaluation of sugar-free dark chocolate with coconut filling

The objective of this research was to formulate and develop low calorie palm based praline chocolate by using binary mixture of sugar substitute namely xylitol and stevia. 32% sugar in the chocolate was totally replaced by mixture of xylitol and stevia. Six formulations with different sweetness ratio were formulated; namely 32% sucrose as control, 32% xylitol with 0% stevia, 31.88% xylitol with 0.12% stevia, 31.76% xylitol with 0.24% stevia, 31.64% xylitol with 0.36% stevia and 31.52% xylitol with 0.48% stevia. Physiochemical characteristics and hedonic sensory evaluations of products were carried out and were compared with the commercial chocolate. Results showed that commercial chocolate solid was highly accepatable and significant difference (p less than or equal to 0.05) with the others. The lowest ranking of all the sensory attributes for chocolate with xylitol solely indicated that combination xilitol with stevia gave better sensory profi les. Hedonic test that chocolate formulated using up to 0.36% stevia is acceptable by panelists. Replacement sugar with the binary combination of xylitol and stevia gave lower viscosity compared to control and commercial chocolate. Increasing in the intensity of red colour was observed with the increasing of stevia ratio. Chocolate with the mixture of PMF and Palm Stearin IV 34 at ratio 9: 1 have a softer texture compared to the commercial chocolate with vega tables oil. Chocolate solid with 31.64% xylitol and 0.36% stevia contain 4.04% fewer calorie than control and can't be claimed as reduced calorie or low calorie. For the sensory evaluation on the praline chocolate, commercial chocolate with coconut filling was prefered mostly. Chocolate praline with 0.36% stevioside and 31.64% xylitol coating contain 496 kcal/g energy per 100g. It has showed 4.7% calorie reduction compared with the sucrose coating and 10.1 % with the chocolate blok.