*2.2. Characteristics of Bread Color*

Replacing starch with CP changed the color of the resulting breads. The bread crumb was increasingly darker the more starch was replaced with CP. The obtained breads are presented in Figure 1.

Noticeable with the naked eye, color changes were then analyzed using a colorimeter. The results of instrumental color analysis are presented in Table 4. A significant decrease in crumb lightness was observed due to the addition of CP. There was a clear decrease in crumb lightness due to CP addition, by 16.4% for BCP2, 27.3% for BCP6, and 33.2% for BCP10. The darker color of bread is perceived by consumers as more desirable, as they associate it with healthier, whole-grain bread [43]. Therefore, it can be concluded that a color change to a darker one will be well received by consumers. There was also a significant increase in the value of the red saturation parameter (a\*), with a slight decrease in yellow saturation (b\*). The color of the crumb may depend not only on the ingredients used, but also on the conditions of the technological process in which reactions resulting in a color change may occur, i.e., caramelization and Maillard reactions [44,45]. Both reactions depend on the temperature, the content of reducing sugars, and amino groups, and can

occur simultaneously during the baking process. The total color difference (∆E) ranged from 13.8 to 27.5, signifying very large differences from RB without CP additive, and as reported by Mokrzycki and Tatol [46], differences exceeding 2 may already be noticed by an observer inexperienced in color assessment.

**Figure 1.** GF breads with CP: RB—reference bread; BCP2, BCP6, BCP10—breads with starch replaced with CP at 2%, 6%, and 10%, respectively.



Mean values with the same letters in the row (a–d) were not significantly different (α = 0.05). RB—reference bread; BCP2, BCP6, BCP10—breads with starch replaced with CP at 2%, 6%, and 10%, respectively.
