Thermo-mechanical and baking properties of the quinoa-rice composite flour

Abstract

The increased interest of consumers for new products from ancient grains has driven the development of bakery products from quinoa. The objective of this study was to investigate the impact of quinoa flour addition to the rice flour on the thermo-mechanical properties of the dough, and on the quality of the bread. Compared to the rice flour-based dough, the quinoa flour-based one presented higher thermo-mechanical weakening of proteins. The starch stability during heating and starch retrogradation during the cooling phase were lower in the case of quinoa flour compared to rice flour. The quinoa flour addition to the rice flour improved starch retrogradation properties. Thus, the torque value from the Mixolab curve, indicating starch retrogradation decreased from 1.716 Nm to 0.979 Nm when replacing 50% of rice flour with quinoa flour. The bread prepared with composite flour has higher specific volume and lower crumb firmness, compared to the rice flour-based bread. These results highlight the possibility of using quinoa flour to prepare high quality gluten-free bakery products.