Bubbles in chapatti doughs

Traditionally, chapattis are flatbreads made from atta (wholemeal Indian wheat flour). Non-atta chapattis have not been popular due to substandard product quality. To investigate what makes atta special for making chapattis, products were made using atta, Australian wholemeal wheat flour, gluten-free lupin flour, and a blend of lupin and wheat flours. Doughs were characterised by measuring strain-hardening and elastic recovery in compression and also bubble structures via 3-D X-ray micro-tomography. A method was developed to identify and separate bran, which appears as bubbles, in scans of doughs. Results highlighted the following: (1) elasticity of doughs is important for stabilising bubbles during rolling and baking, (2) atta doughs are low in strain-hardening but high in elasticity and retain bubbles the best after baking, and (3) lupins can be used to increase elasticity of Australian wheat flour doughs and to make gluten-free chapattis.