Other cereals in breadmaking

Abstract

The main thrust of the previous chapters has been accented towards the production of bread from 100% wheat flours but, although such products are universal, there are some bread products around the world which are based on or include a high proportion of non-wheat cereals. In breadmaking terms, rye is the closest of the cereals to wheat with similar protein contents but a distinctly limited ability to form gluten. The closeness of wheat and rye has led to their crossing and the first 'artificial' cereal-triticale-which may also be used for breadmaking (Gustafson et al., 1991). In the past, maize (corn), barley, oats, sorghum, millet and rice have all found their way into bread products at some time, usually when wheat and rye have been in short supply. More recently, in countries where these other cereals are commonly grown, they have been utilized in breadmaking to reduce the proportion of wheat flour being used if economic conditions necessitate the reduction of wheat imports. In some cases it is possible to make a product which has some of the attributes of wheat breads with mixtures of some of these cereals by utilizing the gelatinization properties of their starches to form a bread-like, aerated structure. In these circumstances the lack of gas-holding capabilities of any proteins present in the flour must be compensated for by adding other bubble-stabilizing materials. © 2007 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.