## 1 Introduction  
Celiac disease has a rising incidence worldwide, with reported annual values in recent years of 21.3 people with celiac disease per 100,000 persons among children and 12.9 per 100,000 persons among adults [1]. Because of this high incidence, the need to ensure an appropriate diet for people with celiac disease has increased, a goal for which researchers and the food industry must closely collaborate. The most important problems faced by patients with celiac disease in ensuring a gluten-free diet are related to the scarce availability, rather low nutritional and sensorial quality, high cost, and safety of gluten-free foods, associated with possible cross-contamination [2]. Ensuring the nutritional and sensorial quality of these foods needs to start with an adequate selection of the ingredients based on valuable nutritional qualities and technological functionalities, while considering their compatibility within gluten-free blends. Most often, gluten-free bakery products are obtained from composite flours based on cereal or/and pseudocregani flows and other ingredients such as starch, protein, and dietary fibers from different sources [3]. Rice flour is known to be a basic ingredient for baking gluten-free products. Because of the hypoallergenic properties of its proteins and its overall good digestibility [4; 5], rice flour is considered the most suitable ingredient to be used as a base for gluten-free baking products, in spite of the poor technological and functional properties which are important for the overall quality of the final products. In addition, rice flour has nutritional limitations, residing in its low content of vitamins, minerals, and fiber [6]. Most of the people with celiac disease tolerate oats well [7]. Therefore, oats can be used as an ingredient in gluten-free products, but their label must include the mention of \"OATS\". Because of its high content of nutrients, the oat grain is considered a functional ingredient. According to the USDA [8], the average values of the main chemical components per 100 g of oats are the following: carbohydrates 69.9 g, proteins 13.2 g, total dietary fibers 12.9 g, and lipids 6.31 g, varying with the genetic features and growing conditions of the oats. The major fraction of oat proteins consists of globulins (70-80%), and, compared to other cereals, this fraction, together with albumin, has a higher lysine concentration [9]. Oats have a low glycemic index because they include high amounts of resistant starch (25%), followed by slowly digestible starch (22%) and only a small amount of rapidly digestible starch (7%) [9]. The particularities of the pasting properties of oat starch are related to the shorter time needed to achieve peak viscosity and lower pasting temperatures [10]. Regarding dietary fibers, oats are a good source of soluble \(\beta\)-glucans (82% of the total \(\beta\)-glucans content of 3-8 g/100 g dry weight). The importance of oat \(\beta\)-glucan is reinforced by the EFSA health claims regarding balancing blood glucose, increasing fecal bulk, and reducing blood cholesterol [11]. Additional heart and vascular system health claims have been assigned to high amounts of unsaturated fatty acids, residing mainly in oat grain endosperm [9; 11]. A wholegrain diet based on oats is also recommended because of its important contents of polyphenols and avenanthramides, with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties [11]. A limitation in the utilization of oat flour is related to its stability. Oat flour processing through fermentation, germination, defatting, and hydrothermal treatment proved to be efficient for improving its stability, whereas extrusion and treatments based on pulsed electric field or enzymes can additionally increase the antioxidant properties and soluble dietary fiber content of oat flours [9].