Effect of multigrain flour mixes on the physicochemical, nutritional, textural, and sensory quality of cake rusks

This work involves blending wheat flour with various proportions of millet, gram, and maize flours to check the effects on cake rusk with respect to important parameters such as moisture; protein; fat; ash; fiber; α-amylase activity; gluten content; and rheological, physical, textural, and proximate characteristics. Five flour blends were used in the study, which included T0 (wheat flour), T1 (400 g wheat flour and 100 g millet flour), T2 (400 g wheat flour and 100 g gram flour), T3 (400 g wheat flour and 100 g corn flour, and T4 (200 g wheat flour, 100 g millet flour, 100 g gram flour, and 100 g corn flour). Rheological study of flours revealed that gluten content was high for T1, amylase activity was high for T2, water absorption was high for T3, dough development time was high for T4, and dough stability was high for T2. Proximate analysis of cake rusks showed that T1 had the highest mois-ture and protein contents, T2 had the highest fat, T4 had the highest ash and fiber, and T3 had the highest calorie contents. Textural analysis showed that cake rusks in T3 had significantly high hardness and crispness, whereas physical parameters showed that T0 had high weight, width, and thickness. T1 had the highest antioxidant activity of 86.78 TE/100 g among all treatments. Finally, consumers preferred T1 by providing the highest sensory scores for various parameters studied. Finally, it could be concluded that T1 turned out to be the top performer in terms of taste and overall quality when compared to the others. Meanwhile, T2, T3, and T4 also showed enhancements in several aspects of physicochemical parameters. From the research outcomes of the present study, it can be concluded that formulating multigrain flour blends could enhance the nutritional value of cake rusk without com-promising its sensory attributes.