Quality and antioxidant properties of wheat cookies supplemented with maqui berry powder

Wheat-based products have been supplemented with various health-promoting ingredients to improve their overall qualities. Maqui berries are one of the healthiest berries in nature; however, their use in cookie making has not been reported. Herein, we aimed to develop functionally and nutritionally improved wheat cookies by partially replacing white wheat flour with maqui berry powder (MBP). We prepared cookies supplemented with different MBP concentrations (2.5%, 5%, 7.5%, and 10%) and compared their quality characteristics and antioxidant activities with those of control cookies (100% wheat flour without MBP addition). The incorporation of MBP significantly affected the physicochemical parameters of cookie dough and cookies. Specifically, MBP supplementation significantly decreased the pH, while slightly decreasing the density of cookie dough (p<0.05). The cookie spread factor increased; however, the hardness decreased significantly as the MBP concentration increased (p<0.05). No significant changes in loss rates were observed upon MBP supplementation (p>0.05). Regarding the color of the cookie surface, L* and b* values significantly decreased, while the a* value increased with the addition of MBP (p<0.05). The 2,2-Diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl and 2,2’-azino-bis-3-ethylbenzthiazoline-6-sulphonic acid radical scavenging activities were significantly increased (p<0.05) as the concentration of MBP increased, and both activities were well correlated. Hedonic sensory results indicated that cookies supplemented with 7.5% MBP generally received satisfactory acceptance scores. Overall, the analysis indicated that cookies with acceptable physical characteristics and improved antioxidant activities can be produced by partially replacing wheat flour with MBP. Thus, the addition of MBP to cookies may be a valuable strategy to increase the consumption of health-promoting ingredients in a diet that includes convenience foods.