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Effect of Added Fat on the Rheological Properties of Wheat Flour Doughs

¹Institute of Food Science, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853. ²Present address: Institute of Food Science, Department of Food Science and Technology, Food Research Laboratory, Geneva, NY 14456. ³Corresponding author. E-mail: sjm7@cornell.edu ⁴School of Chemical Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853.

The effect of added fat content on the rheological properties of wheat flour doughs was determined for three different added fat contents (2.5, 5.0, and 7.5%) at 25°C using dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) and stress relaxation (SR) tests. Frequency sweeps indicated that added fat had a plasticizing effect on G′ and G″ in the rubbery region. SR results were parameterized using a Maxwell model and a Williams-Watts (WW) model. The WW model indicated that each dough could be characterized by just two major relaxation modes, while four elements were needed for the Maxwell model. The average relaxation time for the shorter process was <1 sec and was not affected by added fat. However, the average relaxation time for the longer WW process actually increased from 107 to 261 sec with added fat up to 5%, and then decreased again. Taken together, these results suggest that added fat actually delayed the onset of viscous flow, while simultaneously attenuating the short-time elastic properties of the gluten fraction of the dough. Furthermore, rheological testing over a wide time (frequency) scale was needed to observe the effect of added fat on both the short-time elastic and longer-time viscous behavior of these doughs.