New thermal and rheological approaches of chickpea–wheat dough for breadmaking

Abstract

Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is a legume of Fabaceae family whose grains are rich in proteins, total dietary fiber, unsaturated lipids, minerals and bioactive compounds with antioxidant activity. Therefore, chickpea flour can be an attractive high nutritional complement to wheat flour for the formulation of composite breads. In the present study, the thermal and rheological characteristics of the chickpea–wheat dough obtained by replacement of wheat flour with 100 and 200 g/Kg of chickpea flour were assessed by Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), Rapid Visco Analysis (RVA), Dynamic Mechanical Thermal Analysis (DMA) and Texture Profile Analysis (TPA). Higher gelatinization temperatures in coincidence with higher pasting temperatures with lower breakdown and setback of the pastes were obtained for the chickpea–wheat mixtures. Furthermore, the viscoelasticity of the wheat dough changed with the presence of chickpea flour, leading to higher dynamic moduli (E’, E’’) and lower values of tangent of the phase angle (tan δ = E’’/E’) suggesting the formation of a more elastic matrix. At higher deformations (TPA), higher values of hardness and elasticity were observed. These changes were associated with a marked disruption of the gluten network by the presence of certain chickpea components like proteins, assessed by different microscopic techniques.