Development of Gluten Free Cookies from Rice and Coconut Flour Blends

This study aims to assess the addition of rice and coconut flour blends on cookies formulation, composition and acceptability. For the cookie formulations the following ratios between coconut flour and rice flour were used: 100: 0, 50: 50, 30: 70. Moisture, ash, fat, protein, total carbohydrates of raw flours and cookies were determined by AACC (2000) methods, while sensorial evaluation was carried out using a 9 points hedonic test. Coconut flour was characterized by a high content of ash (5,09%) and proteins (17.2%) comparatively to rice flour. Blending coconut and rice flours at different proportions led to cookies with enhanced protein, ash and fat content (p< 0.05). Sensory analysis revealed that blends of rice and coconut flour can be successfully incorporated into gluten free cookies, resulting in products with pleasant flavor and taste. Coconut flour possesses good nutritional properties which could be utilized for value addition of baked goods.