Use of almond flour and stevia in rice-based gluten-free cookie production.

ABSTRACT: The gluten-free cookies were produced by replacing rice flour (RF) and sucrose content with almond flour (AF) and stevia. Supplementation of AF caused to decrease the moisture content of the gluten-free cookies; while ash, total protein, total fat and total dietary fiber content increased. Regarding of total phenolics; extractable, hydrolyzable and bioaccessible fractions of gluten-free cookie samples that were produced with 30% of AF supplementation, were increased by 43.69-73% compared with the control group that was prepared with 100% RF (p ≤ 0.01). Gluten was detected in the cookies with neither RF nor AF. No cross-contamination was detected during the production, too. Quality characteristics of the gluten-free cookies reached the acceptable level while AF and stevia contents were increased. Protein and dietary fiber contents of the cookie with AF and stevia were enriched to 82 and 96%, while the total carbohydrate amount decreased 19% (p ≤ 0.01). The contents of TEACABTS and TEACFRAP of gluten-free cookies with AF and stevia were 5.72 ± 0.07 and 26.08 ± 0.49 µmol Trolox/g and higher than the control (100% RF + sucrose). It has found that physicochemical, nutrition and sensorial properties of gluten-free cookies that were produced with AF + stevia supplementation provided to produce more acceptable products.