Pulses provide fiber and protein benefits for gluten-free bread, rolls and sweet goods.
Cakes, cookies and muffins — baked goods with a strong flavor profile and a dense or moist texture — are ideal candidates for pulse ingredients. The flavorful ingredients used in these products may help mask any of the less palatable flavors from the pulses, which vary from mild and slightly sweet to stronger bitter notes.
“Multiple types of pulse flours can also be blended to achieve a desired flavor and color profile,” Ms. Majeski said. “In addition, pulse flours have good water-retention properties. This helps create a dense and moist texture in baked goods.”
Garbanzo bean flour is a great example for use as a flour replacement, she said. It has a mild flavor and a lighter color that complements many formulations. Black bean ingredients, on the other hand, make sense for chocolate baked goods such as brownies. Pea powders may be best applied to baked goods that deliver on savory or salty rather than sweet.
Breads from Anna, Iowa City, IA, markets an array of gluten-free bakery mixes based on chickpea flour, navy bean flour and pinto bean flour. This includes the Black Bean Brownie Mix to which the baker adds a 15-oz can of black beans.
To reduce the signature “beany” taste of many pulse ingredients, supplier companies often incorporate a de-flavoring step during processing.
“After reducing particle size, our pulse powders are offered in two main forms. There’s raw, or uncooked, and gelled, or cooked, forms,” Ms. Kinney said. “The latter offers a cleaner taste and neutral color. We believe clean taste and flavor welcomes creativity and flexibility. This means the formulator is not limited to the masking properties of chocolate.”
Ingredion is working with AGT Foods to offer a new line of clean-taste proteins and pulse-based flours. The line includes chickpea flour, faba bean flour, yellow lentil flour and yellow pea flour.
“[Clean flavor] is not much of an issue with snacks, but in more bland applications, flavor can be problematic,” Mr. O’Brien said. “A lot of times, food companies may want to increase the protein content and nutritional value, but the flavor may limit the amount of protein they can use.”
He explained that the reasoning behind Ingredion’s development was to allow a manufacturer to use more protein at higher levels or where the application, say a bread, doesn’t have much to cover the flavor. The company developed sweet and salty ancient grain pulse crisp clusters made with about 8.5% (total) faba bean flour and faba bean protein concentrate. Combined with the protein from the ancient grains, a 68-g serving provides 9 g protein.
“Baked goods that are more mild or bland in flavor may pose some difficulties when incorporating pulse flours,” Ms. Bertoldo said. “This includes many crackers and breads.” She explained a simple approach to combat these issues is to replace only a portion of the wheat flours with pulse flours. This retains the health and functional benefits of the pulses without detracting from the functionality or the sensory properties provided by the other flours.
In Canada, Weston Foods developed Gadoua MultiGo bread made with 18 grains, including chickpea flour and lentil flour. A two-slice (79 g) serving contains 9 g protein and 5 g fiber.
The usage rate of pulses depends on the overall flour and ingredient blend, as well as the application. Some adjustments to other ingredients, such as eggs, liquids and starch, may be necessary.
Another approach to overcome flavor issues is to use sprouted or roasted pulses. These processes modify some of the compounds associated with the bitter and less palatable flavors of pulses.
“Sprouting also begins the breakdown of complex polysaccharides into smaller polysaccharides and sugars, making pulses easier to digest,” Ms. Bertoldo said.
In addition to their functional and nutritional capabilities, pulses can be attractive ingredients because of their sustainable nature. They are known for their water efficiency and low carbon footprint.
“Pulses produce their own fertilizer by fixing nitrogen into the soil,” Mr. O’Brien said. “They use significantly less non-renewable energy and water relative to other crops.”
Pulses offer an opportunity to differentiate products. Introducing pulses and their ancient histories to mainstream food markets, as Ms. Bertoldo explained, helps fulfill our need for global interaction and cultural exchange.
