Mission imPulseible | Ingredients included chickpea, fababean flour
EDMONTON — Mallory Bowes and Elizabeth Dowdell tweaked their recipe 14 times before winning a student food product development competition with an instant angel food cake mix made with pulse flour.
The culinary arts students from the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology won first prize in the Mission imPulseible contest for their gluten-free, nut-free, dairy-free instant cake mix.
The competition encourages students to create food products using pulses.
Bowes and Dowdell used chickpea and fababean flour to make their BE-Lite cake mix. They said they wanted to go beyond the regular food made with pulses.
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Their first attempts to make cakes with pulse flour tasted and looked more like a pound cake. After each adjustment to the recipe, the cakes started to taste and look more like angel food.
“We field tested it with our culinary lab instructors. They were very excited,” Dowdell said during their presentation to judges and audience members.
“It’s light and fluffy and it doesn’t collapse.… Just add water and bake. Our target is busy moms and dads who don’t have time to bake.”
Dowdell said her own busy mom used to bake her a boxed angel food cake for her birthday.
Perry Michetti, associate dean at NAIT’s School of Hospitality and one of the judges, said the cake mix amazed him. As a former chef in a restaurant, an instant, just-add-water, gluten-free cake mix is something he would have kept on his restaurant pantry shelf.
“That cake has such potential. It’s a healthy cake and you just add water,” said Michetti.
“It’s a home run in my books as far as food serve and a home run as far as convenience.”
This was the third year for the Mission imPulseible food competition in Alberta, and Michetti said he has seen an improvement in the kinds of food developed by the students.
Of the eight products presented at the event, Michetti said five or six were “really close” to being marketable and two or three were shelf ready.
“The quality of products overall this year is really great. I have been very impressed.”
Second place went to three University of Alberta students who created Panda Pause, a wafer cookie bar made with white bean and pea flour.
The creamy dulce de leche filling was made with red lentils and toasted almonds and the bar was covered in chocolate.
Third place went to two U of A students who created Pulsitto’s Traditional Tomato and Creamy Alfredo sauce made with pureed navy beans or lentils.
Caryll Carruthers of Mountain Meadow Food Processing, which makes nut free peanut butter, said she has seen a real improvement in the quality and types of food created with pulses over the past three years.
“It’s more innovative and a wider variety. I’m really impressed with several of the items. The quality has been improving every year,” said Carruthers.
Wendy Benson, food and nutrition consultant with Alberta Pulse Growers, said this year’s competitors went beyond the basics to create practical food. It’s a reflection of what’s happening in the real world.
The number of food products introduced in North America using pulse ingredients increased to 283 in 2010 from 71 in 2002. Fifty-eight new products were released in the first two months of this year.
“There are so many health benefits and upsides to using pulses,” said Benson.
She said more students, chefs and industry officials become more aware of the benefits of pulses in food with each competition.
“The ultimate aim is to bring more products to market.”
