Why buckwheat may be the best flour for gluten-free baking

By Dr. Priyom Bose, Ph.D.Reviewed by Lauren HardakerJul 16 2025

In a blind taste test, buckwheat flour rivalled, if not outperformed, traditional wheat. Here’s what makes buckwheat the surprise star of gluten-free baking.

Study: Consumer Acceptability of Various Gluten-Free Scones with Rice, Buckwheat, Black Rice, Brown Rice, and Oat Flours. Image credit: Yulia Furman/Shutterstock.com

A recent study in Foods evaluated the consumer acceptability of gluten-free scones made with oats, black rice, brown rice, buckwheat, and rice flours. Consumers preferred gluten-free scones made with buckwheat and wheat to those prepared with oats, rice flours, black rice, and brown rice.

Why do some consumers benefit significantly from gluten-free products?

Gluten is a group of proteins found in certain grains, such as wheat, barley, rye, and triticale. It is crucial in providing favorable textures and volume in baked products. This protein acts like a glue by forming a viscoelastic network that traps carbon dioxide during baking and binds other ingredients.

Although gluten is mostly harmless, it can cause health issues for some people, such as those with celiac disease and wheat allergies. Celiac disease is a chronic autoimmune disorder triggered by gluten. It primarily causes inflammation in the small intestine’s mucosal cells, damaging the villi, ultimately resulting in malabsorption and atopy. Besides celiac disease and wheat-related allergies, the growing demand for gluten-free products has also been attributed to gluten ataxia and dermatitis herpetiformis.

Gluten-free products remain less accessible to consumers due to their rarity and high cost. These products are generally prepared using oats, brown rice, buckwheat, and quinoa, which contain higher levels of fiber and minerals than wheat-based products. It is not easy to replace natural gluten proteins with those having similar rheological properties because gluten’s viscoelastic properties contribute to the texture and taste of baked items. As a result, it is challenging to produce acceptable and affordable gluten-free bakery products with favorable texture and volume.

The consumption of scones is rapidly increasing in the Republic of Korea due to their limited ingredients and quick preparation process. Many studies have substituted wheat flour, a primary ingredient of scones, with gluten-free alternatives (e.g., oats, rice flour, and almond powder).

Some studies have also experimented with additional ingredients to improve texture and taste and performed sensory evaluations using the check-all-that-apply (CATA) approach. This strategy helps assess consumer perceptions of products. It is crucial to evaluate the acceptability of gluten-free flours using CATA questions.

About the study

The current study utilized CATA questions to evaluate consumer acceptability of gluten-free scones prepared using different gluten-free flours, including brown rice, buckwheat, oat, black rice, and rice flours. Control scone samples were prepared using original wheat flour.

All dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt) were mixed and sieved for scone preparation. A food processor was used to combine butter, milk, and eggs. The dough was gently kneaded for a few minutes and was wrapped to rest in the refrigerator. After one hour, the dough was rolled out, and the scones were cut and baked in the oven. After baking, the scones were cooled and ready for consumers’ sensory testing.

A total of 100 consumers, including 65 females and 35 males, from the Chungju area participated in this study. None of the participants was required to have a prior sensory testing experience. All scone samples were presented to the participants in a white paper dish with strawberry jam. The consumer acceptability test was focused on various attributes, such as taste, texture, appearance, outer crispiness, color, aroma, purchasing intention, and familiarity.  They were also subjected to CATA questions, where consumer panels selected terms that best described their tasting experiences.

Study findings

CATA questions considered 29 sensory terms to describe gluten-free scones, of which ten exhibited significant differences among samples, including color, newness, familiarity, texture, appearance, grainy flavor, sweetness, familiar flavor, and moistness.

Those prepared using wheat and rice flours were frequently favoured among different scone samples due to their appearance, familiarity, color, and moistness. However, scones made with wheat flour exhibited the highest frequencies in savory flavor, texture, harmonious ingredient blend, familiarity, and moistness. This finding suggests that consumers are more familiar with bakery items made from wheat flour.

In CATA analysis, black rice scones had higher frequencies for “newness” and “healthy” than all the studied scone types. However, this scone type exhibited the lowest frequencies for the rest of the sensory characteristics. This finding indicates that the black color did not positively affect the other organoleptic sensations. Its high “newness” score may reflect a psychological association between dark colored foods and perceived health benefits, despite a low rating for overall sensory appeal.

While wheat performed well in appearance and aftertaste, buckwheat excelled across a broader range of sensory attributes. The consumers rated the buckwheat scone sample the highest in terms of overall liking, overall taste, inner color, texture, sweet flavor, savory flavor, aroma/smell, softness, purchase intention, moistness, cohesiveness, outer crispiness, recommendation, and familiarity compared to wheat. Despite the undesirable color, the black rice scone scored higher in consumer acceptability than the oat and brown rice scones.

Partial least squares regression (PLSR) analysis was performed to uncover the association between sensory attributes by CATA and consumer acceptability of the gluten-free scone samples. A positive correlation was observed between overall liking and purchase intention. This association suggests that sensory attributes (e.g., nutty flavor, appearance, cohesiveness, moistness, color, texture, and inner softness) positively influence acceptability. Conversely, sensory characteristics such as stuffiness, thick throat sensation, and unique flavor negatively affected acceptability, especially in oat and black rice scones.

Conclusions

The current study highlighted the potential application of gluten-free flours in bakery products based on sensory properties. Buckwheat flour indicated the highest potential for consumer acceptance among the different gluten-free flours studied. Buckwheat is also nutritionally rich, containing phytochemicals like rutin and quercetin, which may add additional health value.

Future research should address the shortcomings of the current study by considering an equal gender balance cohort and analyzing the physicochemical characteristics of gluten-free scones. It must focus on improving the nutritional quality of gluten-free products by incorporating innovative ingredients.

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