Ready To Bake Multigrain Cookies

Abstract

Traditional cookies are ready to eat and the most palatable snack product widely available in the market. These cookies are low in protein and dietary fibres. Also, the preparation of fresh cookies at home is a tedious and time-consuming process. Therefore, an attempt was made to prepare ready-to-bake multigrain cookies with a high protein and fibre content. These ready-to-bake cookies will be available in the market in the form of frozen unbaked cookies that only have to be baked at home so that the consumers will get freshly baked cookies with increased nutritional value. In this study, barley flour (BF) and cornflour (CF) were incorporated with refined wheat flour (RWF) in various proportions. The incorporation of barley increases the protein, fibre and adds beta-glucan to cookies which is very beneficial for health, while corn flour improves the taste and texture of the multigrain cookies. Therefore, five different formulations for ready-to-bake cookies were prepared, i.e. S1 (RWF: BF: CF :: 70: 20: 10), S2 (RWF: BF: CF:: 60: 30: 10), S3 (RWF: BF: CF:: 50: 40: 10), S4 (RWF: BF: CF:: 40: 35: 25), and S5 (RWF: BF: CF:: 30: 30: 40). Based on the physicochemical and sensory evaluation of baked cookies, Sample S4 was found the most acceptable. The unbaked cookies of Sample S4 were then stored at freezing temperature -18°C in the deep freezer. The sensory characteristics of the frozen stored cookies (after baking) were studied at an interval of 15 days for about three months of frozen storage. No significant changes have appeared in the quality of ready-to-bake cookies during frozen storage. Thus, this study's outcome will help in development of healthy multigrain cookies, which can be baked at home in a few minutes.