Calorimetric and rheological properties of wheat flour suspensions and doughs - Effects of wheat types and milling procedure

Three types of wheat were submitted to two different milling procedures, giving rise to six flours which differed by some physico-chemical characteristics such as particle size, level of damaged starch and protein content. Differential scanning calorimetry was used for monitoring heat-induced structural changes in flour aqueous dispersions 80% water and in doughs 45% water. Differences between the thermal behaviour of the flour dispersions and doughs were explained mainly by differences in protein content. This result was confirmed after partial substitution of flour by gluten. Dynamic mechanical analysis performed at 20degreesC on the flour doughs indicated, as expected, a linear increase in the elastic modulus with increasing protein content. The results did not bring any evidence that, under these experimental conditions, starch damage might affect gluten hydration.