These phenomena of gradual increase in hardness
and fracturability with increase in replacement level
of refined wheat flour with pumpkin powder might
be due to the fact that water absorption capacity
of refined wheat flour is more as compared to that
of the pumpkin powder. Hence, during baking the
optimum moisture could not retained in the biscuit
as the carbohydrate content was increased due to the
addition of pumpkin powder to replace the refined
wheat flour.