Color and Texture of Wheat and Whole Grain Wheat Salty Crackers—Technological Aspects of Cricket Powder Addition

Salty wheat crackers prepared from wheat white (WF) and whole grain flour (WG) were enriched with 5, 10, and 15% cricket powder (CRPW). According to the content of dietary fiber and fat, two types of wheat flour and CRPW differed in terms of darkness “100 − L*” and redness a*. The color of the baked products reflected these differences, but the darkening of the whole grain crackers was less intense; the shades of wheat–cricket 90:10 and whole grain 100:0 cracker variants were comparable. Within the WF subset, the hardness diminished insignificantly, with the reverse occurring in the WG group (from 25 to 22 N and from 31 to 35 N, respectively). The flexibility of the crackers was independent on type of wheat flour and the proportion of CRPW, as shown by a 90% confidence interval of 0.97–1.06 mm. By Principal Component Analysis, the primary role of wheat flour type in distinguishing the crackers was confirmed. As expected, the darkness “100 − L*” and the redness a* of the cracker surface could be used to predict the results of the texture breaking test and fragility in general (P = 95%). The 90:10 WF–cricket crackers and 95:5 WG–cricket crackers had similar properties, and both could be adopted in baking practice without modification.