Technological, phytochemical and sensory profile of honey biscuits made from buckwheat, rye, spelt and wheat flour

Honey biscuit is a worldwide traditional bakery product with a long shelf-life. The aim of the study was to analyse the properties of honey biscuits made from buckwheat, rye, spelt and wheat flour. The biscuits were subjected to physical (hardness and brittleness, oxidation stability), chemical (dry matter content, water activity, crude protein, ash content, fat content, crude fibre content, concentration of mineral elements) and sensory evaluations (general appearance, honey flavour and taste, overall flavour, aftertaste, texture, tenderness). The hardness of biscuits ranged from 768.95 (wheat) to 1,631.53 N (spelt), while their brittleness (dimensionless) oscillated between 476.96 (wheat) and 1,353.26 (spelt). The oxidation stability was found to be the highest in the sample prepared from buckwheat flour (1.80 h). The dry matter content ranged from 91.27 to 91.96% without exceeding 20%. The water activity varied between 0.32 and 0.40 (dimensionless) in accordance with the relevant legislative requirements. The crude protein oscillated between 2.27 and 4.26% while the fat content ranged from 7.89 to 11.71% in the rye and buckwheat products, respectively. The ash content varied between 0.85 (wheat biscuits) to 1.04% (buckwheat biscuits) however the crude fibre content was found to be similar in all analysed samples (similar to 0.5%). P, K, S, Ca and Mg were the most abundant chemical elements detected in the samples, while a possible contamination with heavy metals was negligible. According to the sensory evaluation all biscuits were given very good marks with the wheat and buckwheat biscuits receiving the highest scores.