Supplementation of bakery items with high protein peanut flour

Abstract

White skin peanuts were defatted with hexane to produce flours with 55–60% protein. The peanut flour was used to replace 12.5% of the wheat flour in bread, 100% of wheat flour in muffins, and 10, 15 or 50% of the wheat flour in cookies. At 12.5% levels of peanut flour, total solids, protein, moisture retention of bread after baking, and dietary fiber contents are increased without affecting loaf vol-ume. Crust color of supplemented bakery items is darker brown, texture is coarse for bread and harder in cookies, but not enough to make them unacceptable. Peanut flour muffins with a net protein content of 33–40% can serve as a high protein snack food or bakery item, possibly for patients with celiac disease who cannot tolerate wheat flour. Moisture retention in supplemented products was greater than in nonsupplemented controls. Net increase of protein in baked items varied from 4% increase for 12.5% peanut flour bread to 30% for the all-peanut flour muffins. Other physical and chemical prop-erties of these products are presented to support potential applica-tions of peanut flour as a supplement for selected food products.