Effects of baking conditions and dough formulations on phenolic compound stability, antioxidant capacity and color of cookies made from anthocyanin-rich corn flour

- Baking conditions affected anthocyanins degradation and Maillard reaction products formation.
- Citric acid increased the phenolic compounds in corn cookies by anthocyanins stabilization.
- Citric acid improved accessibility of the anthocyanins.
- Maillard reaction was inhibited at low pH.
- Maillard reaction had crucial influence on the antioxidant capacity in corn cookies.

In this study, the effect of baking conditions and dough formulations on phenolic compounds, antioxidant capacity and color of cookies made from anthocyanin-rich corn flour were investigated. The control cookies were prepared from dark-red popping corn, blue popping corn and blue-standard corn flour according AACC method 10-54 and baked at 200 °C for 7 and 10 min. In control corn cookies, the content of total flavonoids and anthocyanins, as free water-soluble phenolic compounds, was reduced by applied baking conditions. Our results show that citric acid significantly increased the total flavonoids and anthocyanins content in the cookies prepared from blue popping corn and blue-standard corn. Compared with the control cookies baked at 200 °C for 7 min, the cookies prepared with 0.5 g/100 g added citric acid and baked at 150 °C for 12 min had higher contents of total flavonoids and anthocyanins by 60 and 70%, respectively. However, as a result of Maillard reaction inhibition at low pH, antioxidant capacity of anthocyanins-rich blue popping corn and blue standard corn cookies with 0.5 and 1 g/100 g citric acid was lower by 56 and 39%, respectively, compared to antioxidant capacity of their control cookies baked at 200 °C for 10 min.