# Effect of Microwave-Assisted Processing of Acorn Flour on Muffin Quality
## 3 Results and Discussion
### Effect of Microwave-Treated Acorn Flour Addition on Technological Properties of Muffins
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c} \hline \hline
**Sample Type** & **Volume** & **Porosity** & **Crumb Firmness** \\  & **[cm\({}^{3}\)]** & **[\%]** & **[N]** \\ \hline AF\_0 & 71.29 \(\pm\) 3.06 \({}^{\text{a,h}}\)B & 57.33 \(\pm\) 3.70 \({}^{\text{a,h}}\)B & 24.39 \(\pm\) 1.07 \({}^{\text{a}}\)A \\ \hline \multicolumn{4}{l}{Samples with dry microwave-treated acorn flour} \\ \hline AF\_925\_1.0 & 82.64 \(\pm\) 0.50 \({}^{\text{c}}\) & 73.33 \(\pm\) 1.85 \({}^{\text{c}}\) & 15.90 \(\pm\) 0.42 \({}^{\text{b}}\) \\ AF\_925\_2.0 & 73.60 \(\pm\) 1.08 \({}^{\text{b}}\) & 61.60 \(\pm\) 0.00 \({}^{\text{b}}\) & 22.99 \(\pm\) 0.74 \({}^{\text{a}}\) \\ AF\_925\_3.0 & 67.18 \(\pm\) 0.78 \({}^{\text{d}}\) & 46.67 \(\pm\) 3.70 \({}^{\text{e}}\) & 42.08 \(\pm\) 1.92 \({}^{\text{c}}\) \\ AF\_1295\_0.5 & 79.19 \(\pm\) 0.67 \({}^{\text{e}}\) & 68.00 \(\pm\) 0.00 \({}^{\text{c}}\) & 20.04 \(\pm\) 0.55 \({}^{\text{d}}\) \\ AF\_1295\_1.0 & 77.56 \(\pm\) 0.87 \({}^{\text{e}}\) & 65.87 \(\pm\) 1.85 \({}^{\text{d}}\) & 19.12 \(\pm\) 0.43 \({}^{\text{d}}\) \\ AF\_1295\_1.5 & 78.42 \(\pm\) 0.79 \({}^{\text{e}}\) & 66.93 \(\pm\) 1.85 \({}^{\text{c}}\) & 17.71 \(\pm\) 0.86 \({}^{\text{d}}\) \\ AF\_1850\_0.5 & 78.19 \(\pm\) 0.80 \({}^{\text{e}}\) & 66.93 \(\pm\) 1.85 \({}^{\text{c}}\) & 18.94 \(\pm\) 0.43 \({}^{\text{d}}\) \\ AF\_1850\_1.0 & 69.46 \(\pm\) 1.26 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 50.93 \(\pm\) 3.70 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 31.75 \(\pm\) 0.31 \({}^{\text{e}}\) \\ \hline \multicolumn{4}{l}{Samples with wet microwave-treated acorn flour} \\ \hline AF\_W\_925\_1.0 & 79.86 \(\pm\) 1.73 \({}^{\text{c}}\) & 68.00 \(\pm\) 0.00 \({}^{\text{c}}\) & 11.85 \(\pm\) 0.15 \({}^{\text{c}}\) \\ AF\_W\_925\_2.0 & 79.95 \(\pm\) 1.27 \({}^{\text{c}}\) & 68.00 \(\pm\) 0.00 \({}^{\text{c}}\) & 13.26 \(\pm\) 0.92 \({}^{\text{c}}\) \\ AF\_W\_925\_3.0 & 77.60 \(\pm\) 1.05 \({}^{\text{c}}\) & 65.87 \(\pm\) 3.70 \({}^{\text{c}}\) & 16.77 \(\pm\) 0.45 \({}^{\text{d}}\) \\ AF\_W\_1295\_0.5 & 75.25 \(\pm\) 0.25 \({}^{\text{b}}\) & 63.73 \(\pm\) 3.70 \({}^{\text{c}}\) & 10.66 \(\pm\) 0.62 \({}^{\text{b}}\) \\ AF\_W\_1295\_1.0 & 69.86 \(\pm\) 0.68 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 50.93 \(\pm\) 3.70 \({}^{\text{b}}\) & 20.87 \(\pm\) 0.63 \({}^{\text{c}}\) \\ AF\_W\_1295\_1.5 & 69.59 \(\pm\) 0.74 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 50.93 \(\pm\) 3.70 \({}^{\text{b}}\) & 31.61 \(\pm\) 0.74 \({}^{\text{e}}\) \\ AF\_W\_1850\_0.5 & 72.67 \(\pm\) 0.16 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 61.60 \(\pm\) 0.00 \({}^{\text{c}}\) & 29.16 \(\pm\) 0.57 \({}^{\text{e}}\) \\ AF\_W\_1850\_1.0 & 65.33 \(\pm\) 0.80 \({}^{\text{e}}\) & 40.27 \(\pm\) 3.70 \({}^{\text{d}}\) & 66.59 \(\pm\) 1.87 \({}^{\text{c}}\) \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular} The results are the mean \(i\) standard deviation (\(n=3\)); AF\_acorn flour; 0—control samples; W—wet microwave treatment; 925, 1295, 1850–microwave power (in watts); 0.5 \(\ldots\)30–microwave processing time (in minutes); a, b, c, \(\ldots\), A, B, C \(\ldots\) —mean values within a column marked with different superscript letters indicate statistically significant differences at \(p\leq 0.05\), as determined by [PERSON]’s test. The significance of differences was assessed separately for samples with dry (lowercase) and wet (uppercase) microwaved flour.  
\end{table} 
Table 3: Technological properties of wheat-acorn muffins in relation to microwave treatment of acorn flour. The crumb firmness values of muffins with dry microwave-treated flour were lower than those of the control sample, with reductions of up to 34.8% (for the sample AF_925_1.0). However, samples with flour treated for the longest durations at 925 W and 1850 W deviated from this trend, exhibiting firmness values that were 72.5% and 30.2% higher than the control, respectively. For these samples, longer microwave exposure resulted in higher compression forces. Conversely, for samples treated at 1295 W, increasing microwave treatment time led to a decrease in compression force, although these differences were not statistically significant (\(\alpha\) = 0.05).