Flour from locust beans

Commercial bakeries and doughnut shops normally use a system that extrudes a batter from a reservoir directly into the deep fat fryer (Figure 5). In such a system the rheology of the batter is vitally important. The batter must flow and spread as needed. The major influence on the batter viscosity is the water content, which is around 70% of the flour or around 40% of the dry mix. Various gums are sometimes added to the dry mix to bind water, reduce fat absorption, and control the viscosity. Examples of these gums are guar gum, locust bean gum and carboxymethyl cellulose. 

Locust gum, also called locust bean gum, carob, carobin or algar-roba, is obtained as flour from the endosperm of seeds of the carob tree also known as St John s bread Ceratonia siliqua, Cae-sapliniaceae). The tree comes from the Western Mediterranean region (Southern Europe, Northern Africa), but now grows mainly in Spain and in the subtropical regions of the United States and Australia. 

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