The main objective of this study was to develop a healthy rice-based gluten-free bread by using raw, roasted, or dehulled chickpea flours. All breads containing chickpea flours showed a darker crust and were characterized by an alveolar (porosity 41.5-51.4%) and soft crumb (hardness 5.5-14.1 N). Roasted chickpea flour bread exhibited the highest specific volume, the softest crumb, and the slowest staling rate. Enriching rice-based breads with the chickpea flours resulted in increased protein (from 9.72 to 12.03-13.21 g/100 g dm), ash (from 2.01 to 2.45-2.78 g/100 g dm), fat (from 1.61 to 4.58-5.86 g/100 g), and total phenolic contents (from 49.36 up to 80.52 mg GAE/100 g dm), and in reduced (~10-14% and 13.7-17%, respectively) available starch levels and rapidly digestible starch compared to rice bread. Breads with roasted chickpea flour also showed the highest in vitro protein digestibility. The results of this study indicated that the enrichment of rice-based gluten-free breads with chickpea flours improved the technological and nutritional quality of the breads differently according to the processed chickpea flour used, also allowing recovery of a waste product.
Keywords: chickpea; crumb texture; gluten-free bread; nutritional properties; staling.