Portuguese traditional pastry known as económicos with satiating qualities, have been elaborated with chestnut (Castanea sativa Mill.) flowers and their decoctions. The complete nutritional profile, mineral content, free sugars, organic and fatty acids, and tocopherols were determined immediately after baking and also after 15 and 30 days of storage. The results were processed through a 2 way ANOVA, followed by a linear discriminant analysis to conclude that only slight effects were detected even in the assayed parameters, after 30 days. The amount of water decreased with time, resulting in a raise of ash, carbohydrates, energy and insoluble fiber over time. In terms of organic acids, succinic acid was the most abundant molecules, with the samples incorporated with the decoction showing the highest amounts of these acids. Sucrose was the highest sugar, although a decrease was detected overtime. Sodium and potassium were the most abundant minerals while zinc was the least. Finally, α-tocopherol was the most abundant isoform of tocopherols and palmitic acid the most abundant fatty acid. Polyunsaturated fatty acids tended to decrease along storage time. The use of dried flowers seemed to better preserve the original profile (control) of the económicos in comparison with the decoctions.
The authors are grateful to M. Ferreira e Filhas, Lda. (Pão de Gimonde) for the cakes recipe, and to the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) for financial support to the CIMO research centre (Pest-OE/AGR/UI0690/2011) and ALIMNOVA research group (UCM-GR35/10A), J.C.M. Barreira post-doctoral grant (BPD/72802/2010) and L. Barros’ research contract (“Compromisso para a Ciência 2008”).
