Fine particle size chestnut flour doughs rheology: Influence of additives

• The use of sieved fractions with fine particle size of chestnut flour improved doughs rheology.
• Viscoelastic properties of chestnut flour doughs increase with chia flour, guar gum and HPMC.
• Water absorption, development time and stability increase with tested additives.
• Additives decrease viscosity and elastic modulus of chestnut flour doughs.

Mixing properties of chestnut flour with typical particle size distribution of wheat flour, incorporated with chia flour (2.5%, 4.0%, 5.0%, 6.0%, 7.5%, flour basis, f.b.), hydroxypropyl methyl cellulose (HPMC) and guar gum (0.5%, 1.0%, 1.5%, 2.0%, f.b.) were determined at 30 °C using Mixolab® apparatus. The rheological characterisation at 30 °C was achieved by steady shear rate (0.01–10 s−1), oscillatory (1–70 rad s−1 at 0.1% strain) and creep-recovery (loading of 50 Pa for 60 s) tests. Thermal behaviour of all chestnut flour doughs was also depicted. These rheological properties were significantly modified by the presence of chia flour and hydrocolloids. The values of apparent viscosity at each shear rate as well as the values of storage and loss moduli at each angular frequency decreased with chia flour, HPMC or guar gum addition. Creep-recovery data showed that the addition of chia flour at 6.0% (56.5%), HPMC at 2.0% (63.7%) or guar gum at 2.0% (64.5%) improved significantly the doughs elasticity in comparison to chestnut flour (20.2%). The flow curves and mechanical spectra were successfully fitted using Cross and power models, respectively.