Influence of Milling Methods and Cold Plasma Treatment on the Functional and Baking Properties of the Pearl Millet Flour and Bread

Background and Objective Pearl millet, a crop with excellent resilience to harsh environmental conditions, is gluten‐free, but hard to mimic the wheat bread textural attributes. Cold plasma treatment is a non‐thermal technology that can enhance the viscosity profile and functional properties of the cereal flour. The objective of the study is to evaluate the impact of milling methods (pin mill and hammer mill) and moisture conditioning (tempered and untempered grain) on the rheological and physical properties of pearl millet flour (PMF). Furthermore, a partially substituted wheat bread was formulated using cold‐plasma‐treated PMF, employing the D‐optimal mixture design. Findings Pin‐milled PMF had a uniform particle distribution, and tempered PMF exhibited the highest yield of 93.5%. Varied proportions of wheat flour (70–87 g), PMF (10–27 g), and shortening (3–6 g) were used to assess the bread hardness, total color change (TCC) of crust, and specific volume, as per D‐optimal mixture design. A special cubic model was fitted in all responses in both conditions. An optimized blend for the tempered flour, containing 85.5 g refined wheat flour, 11.5 g PMF, and 3 g shortening, showed hardness, TCC, and specific volume of 6.06 N, 5.47, and 2.82 mL.g −1 , respectively. Similarly, the untempered PMF contained 75.6 g of wheat flour, 18.3 g of PMF, and 6 g of the shortening agent, with a hardness of 7.32 N, TCC of 6.60, and a specific volume of 3.04 mL.g −1 . Conclusion Cold plasma treatment at 25 kV/8 min enhanced the overall functional properties and texture attributes of the bread. Significance & Novelty This study shows the significance of the application of the cold plasma treatment on the Pearl millet to enhance the viscoelastic and baking properties, and the importance of future research on the millets through exposure to the various non‐thermal technologies.