Evaluation of ingredient mixing procedure on quality characteristics of noodles enriched with half hulless barley flour

The influence and mechanism of ingredient mixing procedure on the quality characteristics of noodle enriched with hulless barley flour were investigated. Dough crumb mixing (DC-M) procedure was used to prepare wheat and hulless barley crumbly dough, respectively, then mixed and sheeted. Flour mixing (F-M) procedure referred to mixing wheat and hulless barley flour thoroughly before adding water. Dough sheet mixing (DS-M) procedure was that wheat and hulless barley dough sheet were prepared, respectively, and then stacked up together for sheeting. The results showed that DC-M procedure could improve the uniformity of water distribution and presented a better gluten network. Noodle made by DC-M showed the highest sensory score, best texture and cooking properties. According to the investigations of dynamic rheological, water distribution and microstructure of dough and/or noodle, the mechanism of improving noodle quality by DC-M may be attributed to the weakening effects on fibre as a physical barrier, then reduce the competitive absorption of water by fibre with gluten, which contributed to a more uniform and compact gluten network structure. This study provided an available way to prepare good quality noodles with non-gluten and high dietary fibre grains with no chemical additives, just by changing the ingredient mixing procedure.