Functional Properties of Wheat-Cowpea Composite Flours, Proximate Composition and Sensory Acceptability of Date-Sweetened Cookies Made from the Flours
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Abstract
This study assessed the functional properties of wheat and cowpea composite flours; proximate composition and sensory acceptability of date-sweetened cookies made from the composite flours. Date flour was used as a natural sweetener to partially replace refined sugar and improve the nutritional quality of the cookies. The production process involved making composite flours from varying proportions of wheat and cowpea (90:10, 80:20, 70:30, and 60:40), which were then used to bake the cookies. The functional properties of the flour blends, as well as the proximate, physical, and sensory attributes of the final cookies, were evaluated. The functional properties results revealed that the inclusion of cowpea flour significantly (p<0.05) decreased water absorption capacity (2.28-1.58 g/g) and swelling capacity (4.23-3.23%), oil absorption capacity increased from 2.19–2.37 g/g, whereas solubility index increased from 9.48–32.69%. Proximate composition of the cookies showed significant difference (p<0.05), and ranged from 4.39-8.42%, 6.81-11.23%, 13.23-20.17%, 1.05-1.89%, 1.23-3.42% and 54.87-73.29% for moisture, crude protein, crude fat, ash, crude fibre and carbohydrate respectively, while the energy value ranged from 439.42-461.86 kcal/100g. Physically, the cookies exhibited spread ratio values ranging from 2.16 to 2.81. The sensory analysis showed that the control (100% wheat) had the highest overall acceptability (7.75), but was not significantly different (p>0.05) from the samples which had 30-40% cowpea flour. This study proved successful in the use of cowpea flour in place of wheat flour in the preparation of date-sweetened cookies, which has been used to improve the functional and nutritional characteristics of the cookies.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Amadi, Allbright Ovuchimeru, Onyechege, Ifeoma Comfort, Newton, Lucky Chibuike, Peter, Chisom Okere, Nyima, Barigboma Miracle (Author)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Amadi, Allbright Ovuchimeru, Department of Food Science and Technology. Rivers State University, Nkpolu-Oroworukwo, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria.
Lecturer, Department of Food Science and Technology, Rivers State University, Nkpolu-Oroworukwo, Port Harcourt, Nigeria
Onyechege, Ifeoma Comfort, Department of Food Science and Technology, Imo State University, Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria.
Graduate Student, Department of Food Science and Technology, Imo State University, Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria.
Newton, Lucky Chibuike, Department of Food Science and Technology. Rivers State University, Nkpolu-Oroworukwo, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria.
Graduate Student, Department of Food Science and Technology, Rivers State University, Nkpolu-Oroworukwo, Port Harcourt, Nigeria.
Peter, Chisom Okere, Department of Food Science and Technology. Rivers State University, Nkpolu-Oroworukwo, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria.
Graduate Student, Department of Food Science and Technology, Rivers State University, Nkpolu-Oroworukwo, Port Harcourt, Nigeria.
Nyima, Barigboma Miracle, Department of Food Science and Technology. Rivers State University, Nkpolu-Oroworukwo, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria.
Graduate Student, Department of Food Science and Technology, Rivers State University, Nkpolu-Oroworukwo, Port Harcourt, Nigeria.
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