Assessment of the Performance of Oat Flakes and Pumpkin Seed Powders in Gluten-Free Dough and Bread Based on Rice Flour

Abstract

The performance of oat flake flour and pumpkin seed protein powder in gluten-free dough and bread based on rice flours was assessed in this study. After studying the thermo-mechanical properties of the rice and oat flake flours at different water absorption capacities, two composite flours obtained by mixing the rice and oat flake flours with and without pumpkin seed protein powder were investigated. Regardless of the sample subjected to thermo-mechanical behavior analysis, the increase in the water adsorption level when preparing the dough caused a decrease in protein weakening, as well as starch retrogradation. The dough with added oat flake flour had a higher resistance to kneading compared to the control prepared with rice flour. Additionally, the substitution of rice flour with oat flake flour produced important changes in the gelatinization temperature, which decreases from 84–86 °C to 76 °C. The addition of pumpkin seed protein powder increased the maximum torque during kneading at 30 °C and decreased breakdown and starch retrogradation compared to the composite flour based on rice flour and oat flake flour. The higher amount of water used for preparing the dough improved the specific volume and crumb firmness of the bread prepared with the pumpkin seed protein-enriched composite flours.