Germinated, toasted and cooked chickpea as ingredients for breadmaking

The effect of processing (germination, toasting and cooking) of chickpea beans was investigated on the resulting flours characteristics and their potential for obtaining gluten free breads. Rheological properties of dough were recorded using Mixolab® and breads were analyzed for their instrumental quality, nutritional and sensory properties. Chickpea based doughs showed low consistency and their rheological behavior was defined by the starch gelatinization and gelification. The bread made with cooked chickpea flour exhibited the lowest specific volume (0.58 mL/g), brightest crumb (L*= 76.20) and softest texture, but cooking decreased the content of carbohydrates, ashes and proteins, although increased the protein digestibility. The highest specific volume was obtained in bread made with toasted chickpea flour, although crumb hardness was higher. Overall, processing of chickpea beans, concretely toasting and cooking led to flours that could be used for obtaining gluten free breads with the nutritional characteristics of the legumes and acceptable sensory characteristics.Authors acknowledge the financial support of Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (Project AGL2014-52928-C2-1-R), European Regional Development Fund (FEDER) and GeneralitatValenciana (Project Prometeo 2012/064). They thank the University of Abderahmane Mira for supporting predoctoral stay of Mrs Ouazib.Peer reviewe