Suitability of Oat, Millet and Sorghum in Breadmaking

Challenges and opportunities of minor cereals with poor viscoelastic value deserve a special attention in breadmaking applications due to their unique nutritional components. In a preliminary stage, the suitability of oat, millet and sorghum in breadmaking was assessed in simple binary wheat flour matrices in which wheat flour was replaced from 0% to 60%. The research allowed the quantification of grains (up to 30% for millet and sorghum and up to 50% for oat of wheat flour replacement) to be incorporated into the binary blended matrices providing minimization of techno-functional impairment and sensory depreciation of breads. Combinations of gluten, vegetable fat and a commercial mix of surfactants, ascorbic acid and antistaling enzymes were used to make breads with 10% increased level of wheat flour replacement by single oat, millet and sorghum in binary mixed samples. The quality profile of binary mixtures of oat-wheat (60:40 w/w), millet-wheat (40:60 w/w) and sorghum-wheat (40:60 w/w) was significantly improved in terms of keepability during storage, mainly for oat-wheat blends which stale at a similar rate than 100% wheat breads. Overall acceptability of highly replaced wheat breads deserved higher scores for oat and sorghum composite breads (7/10) than control wheat breads (6/10). Oat, millet and sorghum represent a viable alternative to make aerated breads with mitigated technological and sensory constraints based on non-viscoelastic cereals.