Effect of milk fat content on the flour behaviour of custard desserts

The “natillas”, semisolid dairy dessert of wide consumption in Spain, are composed of milk, starch, hydrocolloids, sugars, colorants and aromas. Wide information can be found in the literature on the rheological behaviour of water-starch pastes (1,2) as well as on the effects produced on this behaviour by substituting milk instead of water in starch dispersions (3). However, only a few papers deal with the rheological characterisation of commercial dairy desserts (4), or their corresponding model systems (5). The diverse types and concentrations of starches present in the commercial products and the differences in milk fat content might be responsible in great part for the differences in rheological behaviour of these systems.