you do need a blender or mixer with continuous mixing and add water gradually not at a time so you get a lump. We followed the same technique for extrusion industry where we maintained m.c. of 19-20%,

Thanks @Jasim Ahmed. At least I'm sure now about following the right protocol.

Water absorption is affected by many factors Among them: 

water temperature( the warmer is the water the higher is the absorption ) 

 the initial moisture content ( better to temper the chickpea to about 13 %  before milling then the produced flour may be about  9 - 10 % MC   depending on the milling method 

 flour fitness the finer the flour the better is the water absorption

the above respected suggestion of gradual water addition is  key factor in getting better absorption

 my kind regards

 SAIF   

Hi Dear,

you should use to put your flour samples in different relative humidity containers until you get desired moisture equilibration. I am attaching a file containing information that how can you prepare different relative humidity containers. hope it will work for you.

Regards,

Faiz

Dear Mr. Raza:

I usually use use a flour mixer (in a hobart type mixer choose the wire type. see. attached) with two steps of mixing: 1) Mixing with water:  . Pour your flour in, switch on the machine, spray water on the four using manual sprayer (the ammount of water usually 5% more than the calculated target of final moisture content. 5% excess of moisture is required to compensate the loss and vaporized water during mixing). For for 5 kg flour spary the whole water within 3 minutes time of mixing and continue for another 3 minutes mixing.; 2). Moisture equilibration: pour the mixed flour into HDPE plastic, sealed and let the moisture to equilibrate for 12 hours at refrigerated storage. Mix it manually before extrusion, and take samples for moisture content determination.

Dear Husnain Raja,

Your problem is obviously as suggested by other researchers as above, is addition of excess water before allowing it to absorb and get equilibrated throughout the mass and thereby resulting in to lumps. Again the solutions to this problem could be 1) tempering grain to about 14% moisture level from initial 4% before milling and further water addition portion wise to get  desired moisture of about 20% or 2) Going for slow addition of water, portion wise and taking care to add next portion only after proper moisture  equilibrium is attained. You have to optimize the process to find out the quicker method as time is critical for the industrial/ shop floor production.

Thank you all for sharing your valuable knowledge.