Maize plays a very important role in the daily diet of the Beninese populations with a high level of consumption varying according to the different zones of the country. Among the Beninese food products, maize is the subject of the greatest number of food transformations with about forty derived products, including crispy patties "klèklè (resp. kluiklui)" obtained from flours of dry ordinary (resp. roasted) grains. Rich in carbohydrates, maize kernels are unfortunately poor in protein, lipids, minerals, fibers and vitamins. Combining maize with soya, a natural legume rich in essential proteins and nutrients, the noted deficit can be filled and simultaneously resulting patties quality improved. Therefore, what will remain of the so prized patties crispiness by consumers? This article aims at studying the effects of soy addition, provided in two flours types (entire grains and freed-of-pellicles), both torrefied, to maize flour, during patties' manufacture, on some quality characteristics: physical (residual moisture, density), mechanical (expansion rate, breaking strength) and organoleptic (taste, color, crispiness). The achieved results are interesting and reveal that residual moisture of the confectioned patties, using the shelled soy-grains, decreased (7.22±0.79 to 5.62±0.37%) with augmentation of soy-flour content (0-20%). Addition of the unshelled soy-grains first drastically dropped patties’ residual moisture (7.22±0.79 to 3.46±0.63%), and after, induced its increase (3.46±0.63 to 6.38±0.41%). However, these values of maize-soy residual water contents remained lower than that of the control patties (7.22±0.79%). Opposite trends were obtained for densities with regards respectively to the two torrefied soy-grains flour kinds where densities of maize patties made from shelled soy-grains increased (0.71±0.04 - 0.83±0.08 g/cm3), unlike those provided from non-decorticated (0.71±0.04 - 0.67±0.08 g/cm3). The volumetric expansion rates have all displayed increase trend, regardless the formulated patties were from the shelled soy-grains (4.83 - 25.5%) or not (0.91 - 11.75%), calculated ratio related to the control patties. Although they disclosed relatively higher expansion rate values, the maize patties made of shelled soy-grains have got the best crispness scores (40.00 - 44.44%), just after the control variant (31.00 - 40.00%). For the general appreciation, consumers’ preference was rather oriented towards the elaborated maize patties from shelled soy-grains (42.22 - 44.44%).
