## 3 Results and Discussion  
### Physicochemical Properties of Flour and Baking Mix  
Flour, _A. diaperinus_ powder, and their mixtures exhibited statistically significant differences in the moisture content (Table 3). The moisture content of the wheat flour (control = 12.0%) was three times higher than that of the _A. diaperinus_ powder (AD100% = 4.14%). These findings aligned with previous studies, which also reported a low water content in insect powders, ranging from 5.4% [31] to 6.3% [57]. An increasing proportion of insect powder in the baking mixture resulted in a lower water content. The moisture content is a critical parameter influencing both the microbiological quality of baking mixtures and the technological performance of flour, affecting the final  
\begin{table} \begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c} \hline \hline  & **CO: Control** & \multicolumn{3}{c}{**Insect Powder (\%, \(u\)/\(v\) Hour Basis) AD: _Alphitobius diaperinus_**} \\ \cline{2-7}  & **Wheat Flour 100\%** & **AD10\%** & **AD20\%** & **AD30\%** & **AD50\%** & **AD100\%** \\ \hline Moisture & 12.09 \(\pm\) 0.01 \({}^{\text{ }}\) & 11.33 \(\pm\) 0.01 \({}^{\text{ }}\) & 10.89 \(\pm\) 0.01 \({}^{\text{ }}\) & 10.13 \(\pm\) 0.02 \({}^{\text{ }}\) & 7.60 \(\pm\) 0.02 \({}^{\text{ }}\) & 4.14 \(\pm\) 0.01 \({}^{\text{ }}\) \\ \hline Ash [\%] & 0.49 \(\pm\) 0.01 \({}^{\text{ }}\) & 0.64 \(\pm\) 0.10 \({}^{\text{ }}\) & 0.98 \(\pm\) 0.10 \({}^{\text{ }}\) & 1.34 \(\pm\) 0.04 \({}^{\text{ }}\) & 2.03 \(\pm\) 0.03 \({}^{\text{ }}\) & 3.67 \(\pm\) 0.01 \({}^{\text{ }}\) \\ \hline CIE L\({}^{\star}\) & 98.89 \(\pm\) 1.32 \({}^{\text{ }}\) & 89.81 \(\pm\) 0.96 \({}^{\text{ }}\) & 75.47 \(\pm\) 2.95 \({}^{\text{ }}\) & 74.14 \(\pm\) 0.58 \({}^{\text{ }}\) & 59.04 \(\pm\) 0.65 \({}^{\text{ }}\) & 58.59 \(\pm\) 1.29 \({}^{\text{ }}\) \\ \hline CIE a\({}^{\star}\) & 0.87 \(\pm\) 0.05 \({}^{\text{ }}\) & 2.36 \(\pm\) 0.12 \({}^{\text{ }}\) & 2.81 \(\pm\) 0.49 \({}^{\text{ }}\) & 3.07 \(\pm\) 0.10 \({}^{\text{ }}\) & 3.72 \(\pm\) 0.49 \({}^{\text{ }}\) & 6.12 \(\pm\) 0.37 \({}^{\text{ }}\) \\ \hline CIE b\({}^{\star}\) & 8.45 \(\pm\) 0.24 \({}^{\text{ }}\) & 14.19 \(\pm\) 0.79 \({}^{\text{ }}\) & 13.19 \(\pm\) 0.68 \({}^{\text{ }}\) & 14.95 \(\pm\) 0.62 \({}^{\text{ }}\) & 16.15 \(\pm\) 1.27 \({}^{\text{ }}\) & 25.57 \(\pm\) 0.92 \({}^{\text{ }}\) \\ \hline Chroma \(\Delta\text{C}^{\star}\) & 8.50 \(\pm\) 0.24 \({}^{\text{ }}\) & 14.38 \(\pm\) 0.80 \({}^{\text{ }}\) & 13.49 \(\pm\) 0.69 \({}^{\text{ }}\) & 15.26 \(\pm\) 0.62 \({}^{\text{ }}\) & 16.58 \(\pm\) 1.32 \({}^{\text{ }}\) & 26.30 \(\pm\) 0.85 \({}^{\text{ }}\) \\ \hline Hue \(\Delta\text{H}^{\star}\) [\({}^{\text{ }}\)] & 84.13 \(\pm\) 0.47 \({}^{\text{ }}\) & 80.56 \(\pm\) 0.09 \({}^{\text{ }}\) & 78.39 \(\pm\) 1.97 \({}^{\text{ }}\) & 77.98 \(\pm\) 0.34 \({}^{\text{ }}\) & 77.04 \(\pm\) 1.08 \({}^{\text{ }}\) & 76.52 \(\pm\) 1.14 \({}^{\text{ }}\) \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}   
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c} \hline \hline  & **CO: Control** & \multicolumn{3}{c}{**Insect Powder (\%, \(u\)/\(v\) Hour Basis) AD: _Alphitobius diaperinus_**} \\ \cline{2-7}  & **Wheat Flour 100\%** & **AD10\%** & **AD20\%** & **AD30\%** & **AD50\%** & **AD100\%** \\ \hline Moisture & 12.09 \(\pm\) 0.01 \({}^{\text{ }}\) & 11.33 \(\pm\) 0.01 \({}^{\text{ }}\) & 10.89 \(\pm\) 0.01 \({}^{\text{ }}\) & 10.13 \(\pm\) 0.02 \({}^{\text{ }}\) & 7.60 \(\pm\) 0.02 \({}^{\text{ }}\product. A low water content in the baking mixture reduces gluten's ability to bind water. Additionally, the gluten content decreases as the proportion of _A. diaperinus_ powder increases. As a result, dough supplemented with insect powder becomes less elastic and more brittle--properties beneficial for shortcrust dough. However, an excessively low moisture content in the baking mixture can negatively affect the product, causing difficulties in obtaining a homogeneous raw dough mass and forming cookies. It may also cause the cookies to be too brittle, delicate, and crumble after baking.