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Sprouting has been widely exploited to improve the nutritional and sensory profile of cereal-based foods. Controlled sprouting of grains might lead to the development of specific enzymatic pattern (amylases, proteases, cellulases) that may improve cereals micronutrients bioavailability, color, taste and flavor. Nonetheless, the use of partially sprouted wheat as alternative to conventional flour improvers (e.g. xylanase, malt) has not been thoroughly investigated up to now. Xylanase and malt were added to the control flour at 0.5% level, as conventionally used in bakeries, whereas sprouted wheat flour was used up to 2%. Adding xylanase, malt or sprouted wheat to control flour (P/L > 1) significantly decreased dough stiffness, though best performances were observed in the presence of 1.5% sprouted wheat. Unlikely the mixtures containing xylanase or malt, the sprouted wheat blend showed gluten aggregation strength similar to that of the control, suggesting no worsening of the protein network characteristics. As for the leavening properties, dough development was increased from 52.8 mm to 70.4 mm, thanks to the enrichment with sprouted flour. In addition, presence of sprouted wheat improved the amount of gas production during leavening, resulting in dough with increased volume. As for the pasting properties, in the presence of sprouted wheat lower setback values were observed, thus indicating a lower starch retrogradation tendency, as demonstrated by analyzing the crumb texture after three days of storage. In conclusion, addition of 1.5% sprouted wheat may represent a valid alternative to xylanase or malt for improving the rheological properties and bread making performance of stiff flours.