J Food Process Preserv. 2018;e13824. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/jfpp | 1 of 8 https://doi.org/10.1111/jfpp.13824 © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 1 | INTRODUCTION Cookies become one of the most desirable snacks for both young and elderly people due to their convenience, long shelf‐life, and ability to serve as a vehicle for important nutrients. Consumption of bakery products has been on an increase as a result of urbanization and increase in the number of working women. Food‐based industry can exploit this development by fabricating nutritious bakery foods (Akubor & Ukwuru, 2003; Hooda & Jood, 2005). Nowadays, health and conveniences are the two major factors during today’s develop‐ ment of breakfast snack and variety products. At the same time, the consumers have grown up with the formulation of suitable and nour‐ ishing food products. Realizing the malnutrition problems of low‐in‐ come group people and preschool children, the need for upgrading Received: 28 June 2018 | Revised: 6 September 2018 | Accepted: 12 September 2018 DOI: 10.1111/jfpp.13824 ORIGINAL ARTICLE Process development and formulation of multi‐cereal and legume cookies P. Vasanthakumari | R. Jaganmohan Department of Food Product Development, Indian Institute of Food Processing Technology, Thanjavur, India Correspondence R. Jaganmohan, Department of Food Product Development, Indian Institute of Food Processing Technology, Thanjavur, Tamilnadu 613 005, India. Emails: jagan@iifpt.edu.in; hod.dfpd@iifpt.edu.in Abstract The aim of this work is to prepare high protein cookies from multi‐cereal and legume flour and to investigate its physical, nutritional, and functional quality characteristics. The formulated cookies prepared from 100% multi‐cereal and legume flour which includes Kodo millet (Paspalum scrobiculatum), Parboiled rice (Oryza punctata), Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor), Foxtail millet (Setaria italica), Green gram (Vigna radiata), Bengal gram (cicer arietinum), Black gram (Vigna mungo), Cow pea (Vigna unguicu‐ lata), and Soyabean (Glycine max). Multi‐cereal and legume blend revealed reduced water and oil absorption capacity when compared with control. Reduced lightness, increased redness, and hardness were observed for formulated cookies with the in‐ crease in storage time. Irrespective of the decreasing trend in their texture, overall acceptance of the multi‐cereal and legume cookies by the consumers was increased. Overall analysis disclosed that the cookies prepared from multi‐cereals and legume flour proved acceptable not only in quality characteristics but also fulfills the demand of functional foods in preparation of cookies. Practical application Multi‐cereal and legume is valuable source of protein which is a significant component of human diet and is massively endorsed for its combination in food industry for the production of protein‐rich products, which accomplishes higher marketability among the health‐sensitized population. The blend of cereal and legume promotes the utiliza‐ tion of indigenous raw material. However, the victory of making the sensorial quality of combined products identical to that of undeveloped products though incomplete in wholesome nutrition is still a challenge in the food market. The cookies produced from the multi‐cereal and legume combination is very less which can improve the desired functional properties of end product but also to improve nutritional composition. Regular intake of multi‐cereal and legume is one of the ways to a healthy life.