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ARS Home » Plains Area » Manhattan, Kansas » Center for Grain and Animal Health Research » Grain Quality and Structure Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #201355
Title: Hard Winter Wheat and Flour Properties in Relation to Breadmaking Quality of Straight-dough Bread: Flour Particle Size and Bread Crumb Grain

Author
item Park, Seok Ho
item CHUNG, OKKYUNG - RETIRED - ARS
item SEIB, PAUL - KANSAS STATE UNIV

Submitted to: Food Science and Technology International
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/31/2006
Publication Date: 11/1/2006
Citation: Park, S., Chung, O.K., Seib, P.A. 2006. Hard Winter Wheat and Flour Properties in Relation to Breadmaking Quality of Straight-dough Bread: Flour Particle Size and Bread Crumb Grain. Food Science and Technology International (Chinese). 11:164-170.

Interpretive Summary: Bread crumb grain is the cell structure of the bread as it is exposed when the loaf of bread is sliced. It is one of the critical quality parameters of bread, but relatively little research has been conducted. Crumb grain generally is evaluated visually based on cell size, cell shape, and cell wall thickness. Commonly, bread crumb containing uniformly small, elongated cells is considered superior in quality to one containing non-uniform, large, round cells. Twelve hard winter wheat and their flour properties were investigated to find quality parameters that correlate to crumb grain. We found two quality parameters correlated to crumb grain out of 38 quality parameters investigated. One was protein content (12.9-14.5%) which was inversely correlated to crumb grain score, and the other was flour particle size distribution. Crumb grain appears to improve as the proportion of smaller flour particle size increased.

Technical Abstract: Samples of 12 hard winter wheats and their flours that produced breads varying in crumb grain scores were studied for 38 quality parameters including: wheat physical and chemical characteristics; flour ash and protein content, starch damage, swelling power, pasting characteristics, and flour particle size distribution; dough properties determined by a mixograph; and bread-making properties for pup loaves. Only two parameters, protein content of wheat and the granulation of flour, showed significant correlations with crumb grain scores. Protein content of wheat ranging from 12.9-14.5% determined by NIR method showed a weak inverse relationship (r = -0.61, P < 0.05) with bread crumb grain score. Flour particle size distribution measured by both Alpine Air Jet Sieve and NIR methods revealed that the weight (wt) % of particles less than 38 um in size and representing 9.6-19.3% of the flour weights correlated positively (r = 0.78, P < 0.01) with crumb grain score, whereas wt % of flour particles larger than 125 um had an inverse relationship (r = -0.60, P < 0.05) with crumb grain score.