Physicochemical, nutritional, and sensory characteristics of gluten‐free muffins prepared from finger millet, germinated black soybean, and kenaf leaves composite flour

Abstract

The study aims to develop gluten free muffins using finger millet flour (FMF), germinated black soybean flour (GBSF) and kenaf leaf powder (KLP) at varying concentrations (100:0:0, 70:26:4, 50:46:4, 30:66:4, 0:96:4). Significant (p≤0.05) improvement in functional properties of composite flour was observed with the increased incorporation levels of GBSF and KLP while a reverse trend was found for pasting properties. The physical parameters namely height, diameter and specific volume of composite flour muffins were significantly (p≤0.05) lower than the control muffin (100% refined wheat flour). Further, FMF based muffins were dark in color and showed harder and gummier texture. The sensory appraisal revealed that the variant (70:26:4) of FMF based muffins received sensory scores comparable to control muffin. The protein, fat, crude fiber, ash, mineral content, total phenolic content, total flavonoid content, and antioxidant activity of composite flour muffin was significantly (p≤0.05) higher as compared to control muffin. The Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis revealed that microstructure of composite flour muffin was denser with reduced number of air cells as compared to well-developed structure of control muffin.