The “tremendous grain” quinoa has the potential to make a brilliant cookie, in response to analysis by Washington State College.
In a examine revealed within the Journal of Meals Science, WSU researchers present that two forms of quinoa, bred particularly to develop in Washington state, had nice performance as a possible high-fiber, high-protein additive flour for industrial cookies. This implies when baked, the cookies had good “spreadability” and texture.
Style checks are nonetheless underway, however preliminary outcomes present that individuals most popular sugar cookies with 10% of the quinoa flour over a standard all-wheat flour cookie.
“It is the Holy Grail for meals scientists: we wish to develop one thing that individuals like to eat and wish to go purchase and purchase once more — and now we’re including some fiber in with out them even understanding it,” mentioned Girish Ganjyal, a WSU meals scientist and the examine’s corresponding creator.
Originating in South America, quinoa has a number of dietary advantages: it’s excessive in fiber, protein, nutritional vitamins and minerals. It’s also gluten-free. Whereas the grain is well-liked with well being fanatics, it has but to take off with many mainstream shoppers. WSU researchers are working to alter that.
Whereas no official counts can be found, WSU plant breeder Kevin Murphy estimates that quinoa is grown on greater than 5,000 acres within the Pacific Northwest presently, and extra farmers have an interest.
Murphy, a co-author on this examine, has been breeding quinoa traces particularly to develop properly within the Pacific Northwest local weather whereas sustaining, and even enhancing, the crop’s dietary advantages. He has been collaborating with Ganjyal since 2014 on bettering methods to carry these crops to shoppers’ tables.
The present examine additionally recognized one sort of quinoa that works finest for “pre-cooked grain salad” — a extra acquainted use for quinoa — in addition to figuring out the quinoa varieties that labored properly in baking cookies.
Meals science research like this, mixed with area trials that reveal the crops’ agronomic traits, will assist WSU researchers determine which quinoa breeding traces to launch for growers’ use in 2023.
In flip, the data will assist farmers determine which sort of quinoa they may plant, already understanding how they may promote the crop they harvest, Ganjyal mentioned.
On this examine, researchers checked out ten totally different quinoa breeding traces and examined them as a flour in cookies at 25% as much as 100% quinoa. Most of the breeding traces held up properly on the decrease ranges however the cookies tended to crumble as they approached 100% quinoa flour.
The preliminary outcomes from the style checks additionally present that utilizing as much as 25% quinoa flour tended to have higher outcomes. The researchers purposely selected sugar cookies for the style take a look at as a result of they’re plain versus chocolate chip cookies which could masks any taste from the quinoa. For the sugar cookie, slightly quinoa might need a bonus, mentioned Elizabeth Nalbandian, the examine’s first creator and a Ph.D. scholar in Ganjyal’s lab.
“I feel at 10%, quinoa added a kind of nutty taste that individuals actually favored,” she mentioned, noting the testers favored it much more than the management entire flour cookie.
The quinoa appreciation tended to wane after about 30% substitution, Nalbandian mentioned, most likely as a result of the feel began changing into grittier. Nonetheless, she sees potential for quinoa flour significantly within the gluten-free market as lots of these baked merchandise could be low in dietary content material.
The researchers will proceed working to develop and take a look at quinoa meals merchandise, and Ganjyal famous that Nalbandian is especially properly fitted to this work as a result of she has expertise within the culinary arts and holds an undergraduate diploma in hospitality and enterprise administration in addition to in meals science.
“This can be a chef’s artwork in addition to a science,” he mentioned.
