Studies of the quality of cakes made with wheat-lentil composite flours

Legume flours, due to their amino acid balance and their demonstrated nutritional benefits, are ideal ingredients to improve the nutritional characteristics of bakery products. We have studied the inclusion of lentil flour on layer and sponge cakes, and its effect on the characteristics of the batter and of the final product. The addition of lentil flours reduced the density of layer-cake batter but increased the density of sponge-cake batter. This effect was greater with the smaller flour-particle size. Adding lentil flour to the formula reduced layer-cake volume, symmetry index, cohesiveness and springiness and increased hardness. In sponge cakes, no clear tendencies were observed in volume or symmetry index, but the total substitution of wheat flour by lentil flour gave rise to harder and less cohesive cakes. The use of lentil flour with a fine particle size increased cake volume but reduced hardness, particularly in sponge cakes.