Physical Properties, Sensory Characteristics and Nutritional Quality of Biscuits Prepared Using Nut Butter

Abstract

Biscuits are ideal for nutrient availability, palatability, compactness and convenience and can be consumed as a supplement by addition of some nutrients and varied ingredients. Nut butter is a smooth paste made from roasted nuts like peanuts, almonds, walnuts and cashews. Nuts are usually ground and sweetener and salt are added. Natural home made nut butter can be used in making many products like biscuits. Nut butter can be an important tool in the fight against heart disease and can be a nice and healthy substitute for fat in making biscuits since consumption of dairy butter in day to day life is ever increasing world wide because of its high flavour. Present research is an attempt to prepare biscuits using butter from different nuts. It is obvious that all experimental biscuits prepared using 25, 50 and 75 per cent nut butter were very well accepted by panelists in terms of appearance, colour, flavour and taste. Slight reduction in texture scores in experimental biscuits prepared using 75 per cent nut butter was noticed. General acceptance score of experimental biscuits prepared using 25, 50 and 75 per cent peanut butter, cashew nut butter and almond butter was above 9 (above good). Nut butter biscuits were energy dense and provided about 19-25 per cent total fat and 9-13 per cent protein. Mixes of different nuts can be used to produce nutritionally enriched biscuits with more health benefits.