Chickpea flour backed for gluten-free bread success

Led by Dr Marta Capellas from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain, the researchers tested four gluten-free bread formulations made from different legumes (chickpea flour, pea isolate, carob germ flour or soya flour) with the intention of creating a gluten-free bread formulation with soya protein substituted for other legume proteins.

Capellas and her colleagues found bread baked with chickpea flour to have the best potential for baking gluten-free bread without soya protein.

“Chickpea bread exhibited the best physico-chemical characteristics and, in general, good sensory behaviour, indicating that it could be a promising alternative to soya protein,” said Capellas and her colleagues.

Cutting out soy

The team explained that many current gluten-free formulations utilise soya protein flour to produce bread products with good baking and sensory characteristics, however the use of soy may not me ideal due to the high risk of allergy.

“The high allergenicity of soya … and the associated digestive problems, are leading to more research into alternative protein sources which may be able to provide gas-holding capacity and bake development,” said the researchers.

Study details

Capellas and her co-workers tested four bread recipes, prepared with chickpea flour, pea isolate, carob germ flour or soya flour.

They said all breads produced with the legume flours showed good physico-chemical characteristics and an adequate sensory profile – revealing that bread made with carob germ flour had a thicker batter structure when compared with the other formulations.

This is probably due to the different protein behavior and the residual gums present in carob germ flour, suggested the team.

“Carob germ flour generated batters with good rheological properties, however, its breads generally presented poor characteristics,” they added.

The team revealed chickpea flour and pea isolate breads to be the all-rounders, obtaining good results in all parameters studied – “indicating that these ingredients could be a promising alternative to soya flour.”

“Chickpea bread also showed the softest crumb,” they said.

Capellas and her colleagues said additional research that focuses on combining protein sources to optimize gluten-free legume formulations, should be investigated in order to integrate good baking characteristics and sensory profile provided by certain legume flours.