Sensory and nutritional attributes of samh flour and dates powder supplemented cookies

Abstract

Although cookies formulation is based on soft wheat, hard-wheat flour grown in Saudi Arabia was used to prepare cookies. Hard-wheat flour was dry-heat treated at 120 °C for 2 h and 15 min in order to weaken the gluten. Heat treated flour was blended with samh flour (Mesembryanthemum forsskalei Hochst) and date powder (Phoenix dactylifera) at 25 or 50% replacement of the base flour. Cookies prepared from 100% heat treated flour showed poor quality. The addition of samh flour and dates powder significantly improved the sensory quality (P=0.05) and cookies spread. Larger diameter and spread in presence of date powder and full fat samh flour was noted. Cookies with date powder and samh flour exhibited superior colour due to Maillard reaction caused by high sugar content of date powder and the high protein in samh flour. Significantly high potassium, calcium, iron, and copper in blends with both date powder and samh flour were recorded. A mixture containing both dates powder and samh flour is therefore recommended for improved quality parameters and nutritional values for the commercial production of cookies.