Dough handling properties of gluten-free breads

Abstract

Dough is an intermediate stage between flour and bread. Remarkable changes take place in the structural as well as functional properties of flour during bread making process. Dough mixing is one of the important steps in bread making as it helps in achieving an optimum balance among dough handling properties by blending all the necessary ingredients. The four major dough handling properties include extensibility, elasticity, tenacity and stickiness. Gluten plays a prominent role in bread making and is responsible for the remarkable texture, appearance and quality of wheat breads. Gluten-free dough is prepared from one or a combination of different gluten-free flours obtained from the cereals other than wheat, rye, barley and others known for the presence of certain amount of gluten. Additives along with various processing techniques are used to develop three dimensional network structures in gluten-free dough to produce better quality gluten-free breads. In dough evaluation, empirical rheological measurements are used for characterization while the fundamental rheological measurements are used to analyze the mechanical properties of dough. With empirical and fundamental measurements, the efficiency of an additive to substitute gluten can be analysed. Studies have shown that preparation of gluten-free breads with various additives and processing techniques improved the dough handling properties and characteristics of final baked products.