Bakery Products of Unconventional Flours

Unconventional flours from fruits, legumes, and tubers are used in the elaboration of bakery products, replacing different amounts of wheat flours or in products without wheat flour such as gluten-free products. Unconventional flours are used in bakery products for the inclusion of ingredients such as dietary fiber and bioactive compounds that are not available in wheat or maize flours, thereby lowering the consumption of digestible carbohydrates that increase the level of glucose in the blood, which could have health benefits. Bakery products contain a high amount of starch that becomes digestible during the cooking process. The combination of wheat or maize flours with ingredients rich in dietary fiber such as unripe fruit and legume flours, decreases starch digestibility. Additionally, fruits like unripe banana present a high level of resistant starch. The results obtained in studies showed higher resistant starch, dietary fiber, and bioactive compounds in bakery products with added unconventional flours from unripe fruits and legumes; additionally, the glycemic response of these bakery products was lower than the control samples. The use of unconventional flours is an alternative method for producing functional bakery products.