The three main ingredients of cookies are wheat flour, fat and sugar. In gluten-free cookies the wheat
flour must be replaced by other ingredients. The objective of the present study was to determine the
effects of the flour properties of different gluten-free flours on cookie quality. A variety of different
gluten-free flours, including yellow maize, precooked yellow maize, buckwheat, teff and short-grain and
long-grain rice flour, were employed. The flour characteristics (protein, damaged starch content, particle
size, flour hydration properties and oil absorption), dough properties (texture) and cookie parameters
(final diameter, spread factor, texture, colour and acceptability) were evaluated. Coarse-grained rice
flours produced cookies with a larger diameter and spread factor, darker colour and lower hardness. The
rest of the gluten-free cookies had a lower spread ratio and greater hardness than wheat cookies,
regardless of flour particle size. We have thus established that it is possible to obtain gluten-free cookies
with organoleptic acceptability similar to that of cookies made from wheat flour. Nevertheless, cookie
acceptability was hardly influenced by the cereal origin and their taste.