Textural and rheological characteristics of dough for cookies with chestnut flour

Chestnut and chestnut-based food has beneficial nutritional and organoleptic qualities. The biochemical composition of chestnut flour is close to that of many cereals and it can be used instead of wheat flour for people who suffer from celiac disease. The aim of this research is to characterise rheological and textural properties of dough for cookies in function of the amount of chestnut flour (20, 40 and 60%) and moisture content (20, 22 and 24%). The addition of chestnut flour leads to less flexibility of dough and worse ability to recover because of bad connection and brittle consistency of the dough, which is a consequence of reduced gluten content. The gradual substitution of wheat flour with chestnut flour contributes to the elasticity of the dough, due to chestnut starch granules ability to bind water. Extensibility and resistance to extension decrease with increasing addition of chestnut flour as a result of reduction gluten content. The increase in the share of chestnut flour from 20 to 60% resulted in an increase of hardness of the dough