Cereal Chem 69:582-586   |  VIEW ARTICLE

Effect of Baking Absorption on Bread Yield, Crumb Moisture, and Crumb Water Activity.

D. P. Puhr and B. L. D'Appolonia. Copyright 1992 by the American Association of Cereal Chemists, Inc. 

Three cultivars of hard red spring wheat with identical protein contents were milled on a Buhler mill. The farinograph absorptions of the flours at the 500-BU line varied. Bread was baked from this flour using both the straight dough and sponge and dough methods at five absorption levels with each system. From the two higher absorption flours, bread yield loss was greater with the sponge and dough procedure than with the straight dough method. As the absorption levels in the baking formula increased, an increased bread yield loss was noted. Total bread weights from the high-absorption flours were greater than weights from the low- absorption flours. Bread crumb moisture, as determined by the two-step oven method, decreased over a four-day storage period. Water activity values for the bread crumb ranged from 0.995 to 0.975 in the study. One of the cultivars was further milled to produce additional levels of starch damage for different absorptions. Similar results were obtained for bread crumb moisture and water activity for these samples and for the three cultivars used initially.