Amaranth plant grows rapidly, with a high tolerance to arid conditions and
poor soils. So, a trial was made to use amaranth meal in producing popular Egyptian
breads. The quality attributes of balady, shamy (Egyptian traditional breads) and pan
bread produced from wheat flour alone or substituted by different levels of whole
amaranth meal were studied. The quality of the produced breads from different blends
was compared to that of bread produced from wheat flour as control. Chemical
composition, mineral content and the amino acids composition for raw materials were
determined. Rheological properties were evaluated by Farinograph and Extensograph
for dough produced from different blends of wheat alone and with amaranth meal.
Moreover falling and liquefaction numbers were estimated for the studied doughs.
Sensory evaluation for different breads was studied and the data were statistically
analyzed. Finally, some baking properties of all breads were studied. The results
indicate that, amaranth meal contains a good percentage of main components and
acceptable percentage from essential amino acids. The Farinograph and
Extensograph tests for different doughs containing amaranth were not greatly affected
by adding amaranth. So, nearly the amaranth had good character like strong wheat.
Data for sensory evaluation indicate that adding of amaranth till 20% was acceptable.
The specific volume was decreased with adding more ratio from amaranth related to
the percentage of fat in amaranth that affected in Farinograph and Extensograph
tests. Finally, the amaranth meal could be utilized in making bread but needs more
studies.