Proceedings of International Congress on Bioactive Compounds and International Workshop on Bioactive Compounds
Proceedings of 1st International Congress on Bioactive Compounds and 2nd International Workshop on Bioactive Compounds - Vol. 1 - 2018

French bread acceptance is related to its physical properties like texture and volume, and these depend on the process conditions, such as baking time and humidity conditions. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of baking conditions (time and humidity) on the French bread properties. For bread production, wheat, water, salt, yeast, and improver were mixed (9 minutes) in a spiral kneader (Famag Brazil, AM12E), followed by steps of resting (10 minutes), partitioning (100g), rounding and resting (15 minutes). Then the bread was modeled (Technipan Practice, MR500), fermented (40 min/35°C Klimaquip, CF-20), and then baked (Technipan Practice, E250) at 190°C for 9, 12, 15 or 20 minutes with or without steam at the beginning of the baking. Bread was analyzed about hardness (TA-XT2i Texturometer), water loss and specific volume (VolScan). The increase in the baking time caused an increase in bread hardness (kg) for formulations with steam (0.407±0.082a;0.458±0.099ab;0.595±0.206b;0.569±0.201b), on another hand bread baked without steam, in general, did not show a significant difference in hardness (0.455±0.093ab;0.428±0.188a;0.522±0.164ab;0.636± 0.265b). When comparing the same baking times the introduction of steam had no significant effect on hardness. For water loss, the increase of baking time caused a significant rise in the water loss (%), either for baking with steam (12.22±0.83a;16.11±0.60b;18.91±0.42c;23.23±0.63d) or without steam (12.77±0.99a;16.52±2.41b;19.80±2.74c;23.05±1.78d). However, when comparing the same baking time the introduction of steam or not showed no significant effect on the water loss (t=9min, 12.77±0.99a-12.22±0.83a; t=12min, 16.52±2.41a-16.11±0.60a; t=15 min, 19.80±2.74a-18.91±0.42a, t=20 min, 23.05±1.78a-23.23±0.63a). For specific volume (mL/g), the increase of time, for baking with steam, favored the increase of bread (2.850±0.154a;2.976±0,125ab;3.120±0.178b;3.132±0.270b), however, for conditions without steam, no significant effect was observed (2.889±0.200a;2.988±0.257a;3.005±0.257a;3.120±0.366a). The introduction of steam caused an increase of bread hardness, water loss, and specific volume when exposed to longer baking times; still, for baking without steam, a significant effect was only observed for water loss response. The steam introduction, at the beginning of the bakery, favors the heat transfer towards the thermal center of the product, i.e., the increase in temperature at the center (crumb) is higher when compared to the baking without steam. Thus, the higher the heat input to the center of bread will favor the expansion of the gases inside porous, during baking, resulting, therefore, in a higher increase of the bread specific volume, when compared to the condition without steam. Also, the steam allows the formation of a surface with greater plasticity and extensibility to tolerate the expansion mechanisms of gases. Simultaneously, the higher heat input to the thermal center of the product will favor the mechanisms of water transfer, the water molecules migrate from the crumb to the surface, resulting in a more significant loss of water, and consequently greater hardness in products baking with the steam introduction. Therefore, this study concluded that, the steam introduction, at the beginning of the bakery causes modifications on the French bread properties, once, the increase of hardness, water loss and specific volume, with the increase of baking time, occurred just for bread baking with steam introduction.

This study was financed in part by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - Brasil (CAPES) - Finance Code 001, Foundation for Research Support of the State of São Paulo (FAPESP) - Finance Code (2013/12693-0; 2018/03324-5) and Unified Scholarship Program (RUSP-USP).