Amaranth Offers Advantages for Gluten Free Baking

Many gluten-free products are low in nutrients, and offer technological challenges to food processors. Scientists at the Research Center for Food and Development in Hermosillo, Mexico, experimented with amaranth, a food with a long culinary tradition in Mexico. They found that bread formulation with 60-70% popped amaranth flour and 30-40% raw amaranth flour produced loaves with an even crumb and higher volume than most gluten-free breads, and that cookies formulated with 20% popped amaranth flour and 13% whole grain popped amaranth also worked out well. Both foods offered acceptible dough functionality without some of the additives often needed in GF foods, and the final foods had a very high nutritional value.
Plant Foods for Human Nutrition, August 24, 2010 [Epub ahead of print]