Quality Characteristics of Gluten-Free Cookies Prepared from Oat and Unripe Banana Flour Blends

Abstract

ABSTRACT The present study was carried out to develop quality characteristics of gluten-free cookies prepared from oat and unripe banana flour blends. Oat flour (OF) got substituted with unripe banana flour (UBF) at the levels of 25, 50, 75, and 100% in terms of the physicochemical and sensory evaluation of cookies. The obtained results revealed that the gross chemical composition showed that OF contained moisture (6.99%), crude protein (16.65%), crude fat (9.13%), ash (1.82%), crude fiber (10.87%), total carbohydrates (65.33 %), and caloric value (410.14 kcal/100 g). While, UBF contained 6.79, 4.80, 5.16, 2.95, 13.03, 84.93%, and 363.56 kcal/100 g for moisture, crude protein, crude fat, ash, crude fiber, total carbohydrates, and caloric value, respectively. It should be noticed that the increase of UBF in cookies led to the increased proportion of ash, crude fiber, total carbohydrate, and the decreased proportion of crude fat, crude protein, and caloric value compared to control. Physical parameters including weight, thickness, diameter, and spread ratio in cookies with 25% and 50% UBF didn't differ significantly compared to the control; these ratios recorded the best results. High levels of UBF caused harder cookies. Regarding cookies colors, results observed that the brightness (L*) and yellowness values (b*) in cookies had gradually declined with the increasing levels of UBF, whereas, redness (a*) value had increased, which means that the UBF resulted in darker cookies when the addition was higher. The total score for overall palatability was acceptable for all cookies, but samples of cookies containing 25 and 50% UBF had a higher total score than the other samples. In conclusion, the current study confirms that unripe banana flour can be used up to 50% in the production of a gluten-free diet -such as cookies- with improving the nutritional, sensorial, and physicochemical quality of these products.