Quality Optimization and Evaluation of New Cookie Product with Celery Root Powder Addition.

Combined drying, an energy-efficient method that includes osmotic pretreatment in molasses and shortened successive lyophilization, was used to obtain celery root powder and incorporate it in the formulation of cookies, with the aim of obtaining a new product. Wheat flour was substituted with combinedly dehydrated celery root powder at levels from 0 to 30%, and optimization of the amount of wheat flour substitution regarding technological, sensory and nutritive characteristics was performed. The optimal level of 20% substitution was determined using Z-score analysis, from the aspect of the best nutritive improvement and the mildest adverse impact on the technological and sensory quality. In the second research phase, comparison of the cookies with the 20% celery root powder substitution, dehydrated by different methods, indicated that combined dehydration showed upgraded results in terms of the overall quality of the final product, for 28.85 percentile points higher than cookies with lyophilized and for 65.24 percentile points higher than cookies with the addition of convectively dried celery root powder. The cookie containing celery powder previously osmodehydrated in molasses had higher contents of analyzed minerals (1.2-3.3 times), total phenols (10.8%) and antioxidant activities (14% for DPPH and 4% for ABTS) compared to the cookie with lyophilized powder.