Soft, rubbery, and glassy (seasonal) matter
Prof. Dr. Thomas Vilgis (Max-Planck-Institut für Polymerforschung, Mainz)

No matter in which culture, great feasts lead to opulent sweets and high level bakery art work resulting in cakes, cookies and other sweet delicious confectioneries: star shaped cinnamon biscuits (Zimtsterne), Panettone, Dresdner Stollen, sugar pretzels or the classical yeast bun (Hefezopf) define a class of sugar based foods with exceptional sweet taste, but very different mouth feel. Composition and ingredients of these different ingredients determine very different physical states. Panettone contains mainly water, flour, sugar and yeast, which yields bread like, in elastic sponges. Biscuits, “cinnamon stars” and other short breads form crispy, brittle and glassy textures. In this talk the different “universality” classes of bakery products will be considered from a simple physical point of view and it is shown that eating, mouthfeel and perception are based on molecular interactions on the nanoscale.