Development of Value Added Low Glycaemic Index Barnyard Millet (Echinochloa frumentacea Link) Cookies

Barnyard millet (Echinochloa frumentacea Link) is one of the important minor millet and good source of macronutrient, micronutrient and nutraceutical components. As the concept of low glycaemic index foods is gaining interest for the effective management of diabetes mellitus, efforts have been accelerated in this direction to bring into light various foods of low glycaemic index. With increasing urbanization, the demand for processed food is increasing. Among them, bakery products particularly cookies command wide popularity in urban and rural mass. Hence an attempt was made to develop barnyard millet based value added low glycaemic index cookies. Trials were conducted by incorporating sago flour, pulse flour and dehydrated carrot gratings at different levels to barnyard millet flour to develop plain, pulse and vegetable cookies respectively and were evaluated organoleptically. The best accepted variations of plain, pulse and vegetable cookies were evaluated for nutrient composition and glycaemic index. The findings indicated significant increase in nutrient composition in pulse and vegetable cookies. The glycaemic index of vegetable cookies (21.65) and pulse cookies (24.42) were significantly less than plain cookies (42.04). Thus, the developed cookies with low glycaemic index can be recommended for inclusion in diabetic diet.