## 3 Results and Discussion
### Physicochemical Properties of Cookies  
The protein content of the tested products is presented in Table 4. The lowest protein content was observed in cookies without _A. diaperinus_ powder (_7.7_ g protein/100 g of finished product). Replacing wheat flour with insect powder at a 10% ratio increased the protein content by approximately 2 g/100 g compared with the control sample. Similar results were reported by [PERSON] et al. (2020) [10], who observed a 3 g/100 g protein increase in biscuits when replacing oat flour with _Acheta domesticus_ powder at the same 10% inclusion level. The presented results showed a clear correlation: the higher the percentage of insect powder in the cookies, the more the protein content linearly increased (linear model accuracy R\({}^{2}\) = 0.9614), which enhances the nutritional value of the product. The low moisture content of _A. diaperinus_ powder (4.14 \(\pm\) 0.01 g/100 g) significantly reduced the final product's moisture as its proportion in the dough increased. This reduction directly affected cookie crispness, defined as the maximum force required to deform (break) the sample, as well as texture properties such as density and porosity. As moisture availability in the dough promotes gluten development, replacing wheat flour with insect powder reduced both gluten and water (due to the low moisture content of the insect powder), which led to a much weaker gluten network, making the cookies less risen and denser. The limited evaporation of water during baking, which causes dough to rise, could also have contributed to this effect. Fat also plays an important role in texture formation by facilitating the even dispersion of starch molecules and incorporating air during kneading, increasing the number of gas cells [67]. In the final products, fat originated from both the margarine and insect powder. The fat-rich insect powder increased the total fat content in the dough, which influenced the cookie hardness. As the insect powder content increased, the force required to deform the cookies decreased, making them softer and crumblier. Cookies made with the AD50% mixture required half the deformation force (8.56 N) of the control sample (16.76 N for 100% wheat flour). Other studies confirm that incorporating _A. domesticus_ or _T. molitor_ powder similarly reduces shortcrust cookie hardness [50; 64; 70]. Figure 2: Color parameters of wheat flour and baking mixtures with different proportions of insect powder (AD: _A. diaperinus_) at different percentages (AD10%, AD20%, AD30%, and AD50%). Different lowercase letters indicate a statistically significant difference between the means (Tukey’s test, \(p\) < 0.05, and n = 5). The TFA isomers present in hardened vegetable fat, along with saturated fatty acids (SFAs), contribute to the high melting point of fats [42]. Their presence (both TFAs and SFAs) in confectionery products plays a role in achieving a delicate structure and desirable texture [37; 42; 71]. At the same time, it was observed that as the proportion of insect powder in the product increased, the acidity of the baked goods also rose, which was consistent with the findings of other authors [10; 72; 73]. The color component analysis of the baked cookies (Table 4) showed that all samples were located in the first quadrant of the chromatic diagram. However, as the proportion of _A. diaperinus_ powder increased, the L* and b* coordinates significantly decreased (\(\alpha\leq 0.05\)) compared with the control (L0* = 69.61 \(\pm\) 0.49; b0* = 27.99 \(\pm\) 1.06), indicating a darkening effect. The red color component, represented by the positive value of a*, was significantly higher in the AD10%-AD50% samples than in the control and exhibited an increasing trend with a higher insect powder content. The control sample also showed slight redness (a* = 5.34 \(\pm\) 0.40). The obtained chromatic coordinates were consistent with the results of other authors [4; 74], both in terms of values and the trend of the changes.