IJERD – International Journal of Environmental and Rural Development (2013) 4-2

Research article
erdAnalysis of Requisite Quality of Cassava and Temperaturefor Baking Cookies
SARIN NEANG*
Royal University of Agriculture, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Email: neangsarin@gmail.com

VITOU ORNG
Royal University of Agriculture, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

VOUCHSIM KONG
Royal University of Agriculture, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

SAROM MENRoyal University of Agriculture, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

LINDA FORRESTER
Education Advisor, Australia

BORARIN BUNTONGRoyal University of Agriculture, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Received 16 December 2012

Accepted 10 June 2013(*Corresponding Author)

Abstract Cookies are a kind of food product made from flour and other ingredients suchas butter, egg, sugar, milk, and baking soda. This research was conducted to find theoptimum temperature and the optimum proportion of cassava flour required in cookie
production. The experiment was divided into nine treatments with three replications,different temperatures included 160 °C, 170 °C ; 180 °C and proportions of cassava flour
trialed were 50 %, 75 %; 100 %. The processing and sensory testing were conducted in thefood processing laboratory of the Faculty of Agro-Industry, Royal University ofAgriculture (RUA) while the analysis of chemicals was done in the Industrial Laboratory
Centre of Cambodia (ILCC). The results show that using 50%, 70% and 100% 5 % and
100 % of cassava flour at the temperature of 160 °C, 170 °C and 180 °C affected thechemical properties of cookie products such as ash, moisture, protein, fat, sugar,carbohydrate, and energy. Also, they affected the color, texture, odor, as well as flavor andcrispness, factors which all related to consumers identifying cookies as their favorites.
Among nine treatments, the second treatment which used 50% of cassava flour at thetemperature of 170 °C was the best treatment; whereas, the ninth treatment which used
100% of cassava flour at the temperature of 180 °C had the lowest quality. Therefore,
results show that 50 % of cassava flour baked at the temperature of 170 °C for 8 minutes isthe optimum configuration to use in cookie production.
Keywords processing, temperature, sensory test, cassava, cookies

INTRODUCTION
Cassava is a kind of plant that mostly grows in tropical area in South America. The root of Cassava
has poisonous substances, but the rest of the plant is edible and provides a lot of essential nutrients.
Cassava is rich in Carbohydrate and low lipids that play a role in providing energy to the humanbody. Energy from Cassava is related to the density of calories, where 100 gram provides 160
calories (Willett, 2005). Cassava is known and grown by Cambodian farmers since 19 th century. It
was grown for starch production for commercial purpose, livestock feed and used for human.

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IJERD – International Journal of Environmental and Rural Development (2013) 4-2Before 1970, this crop was planted in small areas, especially on black soil, along the river, andupland areas and red soil in some areas of the country.
Between 1975 and 1979, this crop becomes a staple, and people eat cassava instead of rice.
This is a very popular crop among farmers in southeastern and eastern areas of the country,
especially for people living in upland areas. However, some farmers living in lowland areas also
grow this crop on the space around their house, and they consume it as their food (MAFF, 2003).
The cassava yield increased from 535,600 tons in 2005 to 2 million tons in 2007. This is theresult of increasing lands for growing cassava crops. Cassava was planted on 30,000 hectares in2005 and 1,000,000 hectares in 2007 and the yield rose from 17.9 tons/ha to 20.5 tons/ha (CIAT,2008). Cassava has an important role in the development of rural areas because it is the raw
material in industrial productions such as animal feed, starch, ethanol, bioethanol and other foodprocesses in bakery production, such as ice cream, cakes, and biscuits (Willett, 2005).
OBJECTIVE
This research was aimed at finding the optimum temperature and the amount of cassava flour
required in cookie production.
METHODOLOGY
Study site
This research included processing cookies, analyzing chemical contents and sensory testing andwas conducted at the laboratory of the faculty of Agro-Industry, Royal University of Agriculture(RUA). The analysis of chemical contents in processed cookies was done at the Industrial
Laboratory Centre of Cambodia (ILCC), Phnom Penh, while the sensory test was done at RUA.
The research study was conducted between May and August, 2012.
Experimental design and treatments
The factorial Complete Randomized Design (CRD) was used in this experimental method; there
are three factors including temperature (160ºC, 170 ºC and 180 ºC), cassava flour (50%, 75% and100%), and wheat flour (50% and 25%) as shown in table 1.
Table 1 Divisions of experimental treatments
Treatments
T1
T2
T3
T4
T5
T6
T7
T8
T9

Temperature (ºC)
160
170
180
160
170
180
160
170
180

Cassava flour (%)

Wheat flour (%)

5050

752510000

Raw materials of the cookies were cassava flour, wheat flour, sugar, egg, butter, baking soda,blue berries and milk. 11% of egg white was mixed by a hand mixer and then 31. 25% of butter
was added in the egg port. 31. 25% of sugar, 6.25% of milk, 16% of blue berries and 1% of baking
soda were subsequently mixed in the egg and butter port. The cassava flour and wheat flour wereadded and compressed into cookie dough 1 cm thick before baking in the oven for eight minutes ineach temperature that had already been set. Noticeably, before using the oven, it needed to be© ISERD144

IJERD – International Journal of Environmental and Rural Development (2013) 4-2

heated 250 ºC for 20 minutes. Taken out from the oven, the cookies were placed on the tray inambient temperature for 10 minutes before packing in a plastic bag.
Chemical analysis
After getting the processed cookies, all were taken to test chemical contents such as ash, energy
and sensory test (color, texture, odor, flavor and crisp). Recorded data was organized for analysis
using Microsoft Excel to specifically determine comparative, quantitative and qualitative analysis.
A. Ash: Dry the cup of ash in an oven with temperature of 150 ºC for 1 hour and then take the cupto further dry in desiccators for 30 minutes before weighting. Then, put a sample of about 2 g in thecup. Weigh and record the weight. Take the sample to dry in the oven with the temperature 600 ºC
for 3 hours. Lastly, take it to put in desiccators and weight it again (AOAC, 2005).
B. Energy: Energy consists of carbohydrate, fat and protein (Willett, 2005).
Total energy = (Protein × 4 cal/g) + (fat × 9 cal/g) + (carbohydrate × 4 cal/g)
Where, protein 100 g, energy 100 g, fat %, carbohydrate 100 g
C. Sensory test: The questionnaires designed to test, color, texture, odor, flavor, and crispness.
Preference was recorded from 30 participants. The score ranged from 1 to 5 (1: dislike, 2:
somewhat dislike, 3: like, 4: somewhat like and 5: like very much).
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Ash% Ash

Figure 1 showed that the fourth treatment used cassava flour 75% and wheat flour 52% intemperature of 160 °C had the highest ash of 0.978% and the third, sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth
had similar percentage of ash. On the other hands, the second treatment used cassava flour 50% andwheat flour 50% in 160 °C had the lowest ash of 0.95 %. In general, food products that made offlour had ash between 0.3 to 1.4 %.
0.985
0.98
0.975
0.97
0.965
0.96
0.955
0.95
0.945
0.94
0.935
T1

T2

T3

T4

T5

T6Treatments

T7

T8

T9Fig. 1 Ash analysis in each treatment
EnergyFigure 2 showed that the fourth treatment using cassava flour 50% and wheat flour 50% at thetemperature of 160 °C has energy of 454 kilocalories, which was the highest energy of alltreatments. Conversely, the ninth treatment using 100% of cassava flour in temperature of 180 °C
to 160 °C had energy 445.544 kilocalories, which was the lowest energy of all treatments.

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IJERD – International Journal of Environmental and Rural Development (2013) 4-2456
454
Kilocalorie Energy

452
450
448
446
444
442
440
438
T1

T2

T3

T4
T5
T6Treatments

T7

T8

T9Fig. 2 Energy analysis of each treatment
ColorThe second treatment using cassava flour 50% and wheat flour 50% in the temperature of 170 °Cscored 4 out of 5, which was the highest mark. Conversely, the ninth treatment using cassava flour
100% without using wheat flour in the temperature of 180 °C scored 3.37 out of 5, which was thelowest mark. The changing score was because the cookie’s color changed. Baking cookies in atemperature of 160 °C gave a pale color, in a temperature of 180 °C the cookies had a dark color,and in a temperature of 170 °C the outcome was a pleasing golden color, which was the favorite
cookie for participants. The cookie’s color changed because of the changing temperature.
TextureFigure 3 shows that the second treatment using cassava flour 50% and wheat flour 50% at atemperature of 170 °C was the highest mark of 4 out of 5, and the ninth treatment using cassava
flour 100% without using wheat flour at a temperature of 180 °C was the lowest mark of 3 out of 5.
The changes in marking were because the temperature of 160 °C and 180 °C made the cookies
crack. Baking cookies in a temperature of 170 °C resulted that a cookie was red and shinier thanboth of the others. The changes of food texture were caused by the changes of temperature; inaddition to, the changes of texture also made cassava flour changes in color and brightness.
Texture markT9, 3.3 T1, 3.4
T8, 4.03
T2, 4.1
T7, 3.6

T3, 3.6

T6, 3.3
T5, 4.0

T4, 3.4

Fig. 3 Evaluation on texture of cookie in each treatment
The results above showed that the second treatment that used cassava flour 50% attemperature of 170 oC was the best treatment out of the nine treatments because in this treatment
pH value, moisture, ash, protein, fat, and energy were in appropriate level when compared to thestandard of Hard biscuit or Hard Cookie that contains pH 7.6, humid 2.6%, ash 2%, protein 7.6%,lipid 10% and carbohydrate 77.8%. Moreover, in outcomes of sensory testing of color, texture,odor, sweet flavor, hardness, and crispness, the second treatment was the favorite one forparticipants, followed by first and third treatments. However, treatment nine, which used 100%

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IJERD – International Journal of Environmental and Rural Development (2013) 4-2

cassava flour at a temperature of 180 oC was the least appropriate treatment of all because thistreatment contained the lowest protein and energy, and it was also the least favorite treatment fromthe participants’ point of view.
CONCLUSION
Using more than 50% of cassava flour in cookie production produced less quality cookies. In
cookie processing, the temperature range from 160 to 180 oC could affect chemical properties suchas humidity, proteins and lipids and also lower the calories. This problem showed that the higher
the temperature we used the lower quality of chemical properties the cookie had. 50 % of cassava
flour baked at a temperature of 170 °C for 8 minutes should be recommended and used in cookie
production.
REFERENCES
Association of Analytical Communities (AOAC) International. 2005. Official method of analysis. 18thedition.
Bose, D. 2010. How to make cookie dough. (From: www.how-to-make-cookie-dough.html.htm.)
International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT). 2008. A new future for cassava in Asia. Its use as food,feed and fuel to benefit the poor. Bangkok, Thailand.
Nielsen, S.S. 2009. Ash analysis. In: Book of Food Analysis, (Maurice R. and Marshall. Eds.) Department offood science and Human Nutrition. University of Florida. Gainesville, USA.
Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fishery (MAFF). 2003. Agriculture statistics and research planning.
Develop of Planning and International Cooperation. Phnom Pehn, Cambodia.
Willett, B. 2005. Cassava benefits. (From: www.Cassava Benefits _ Livestrong.com.htm.)© ISERD147