This work aimed to develop novel alternative gluten-free premixes for use in the production of cookies by optimizing the formulation of three different starches (corn, potato, and tapioca starch) in a rice/corn formula and then enriching the optimized formula with various natural flours (acorn, soy, chestnut, chickpea, millet, and quinoa). An extreme vertices mixture design was used to optimize the mixing sub-part consisting of 30% (w/w) of starches. The enriched gluten-free cookies were characterized by physical, rheological, antioxidant, color, and sensory properties. An optimum was obtained by mixing 18.5084 g of corn starch, 6 g of potato starch, and 5.4916 g of tapioca starch. The enrichment results indicated that soy-enriched gluten-free cookies have a high specific volume (2.428 cm3/g) with the highest spread ratio (12.25) compared to other cookies. The rheological properties of enriched gluten-free doughs indicated a higher value of the consistency coefficient (K) of soy-enriched gluten-free cookies. The antioxidant characteristics were enhanced by replacing corn with several types of flours, with higher TPC for acorn (2.83 mg GAE/g dw) and soy-enriched cookies (2.49 mg GAE/g dw) with better antioxidant activities (DPPH, ABTS, and RED). The tasters gave all the cookies favorable ratings for overall acceptability. With an average rating of 7.09, cookies enhanced with chickpea flour have a high acceptability compared to the other cookies. Considering all the tested parameters, PCA analysis clustered millet, corn, quinoa, and chestnut gluten-free enriched cookies into the same group. However, acorn and soy cookies were placed in a separate group, and chickpea-enriched cookies were classified separately.
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