Significance of structuring/prebiotic blends on bread dough thermo-mechanical profile

The present research was undertaken to explore the significance of structuring/prebiotic blends on bread dough rheological performance during mixing, fermentation, resting, cooking and cooling stages of breadmaking simulation. Carboxymethylcellulose and locust bean gum, and prebiotic oligosaccharides were used to replace wheat flour at 10% substitution level. The impact of fibre replacement on bread dough linear and nonlinear rheological/functional performances was investigated by mechanical and thermo-mechanical approaches. Dietary fibre effect on dough microstructure was also studied. Significant variation among samples in terms of dough strength as a consequence of the different structuring agents used was found. Neither inuline nor gluco-oligosaccharides were able to modify the general trends marked for carboxymethylcellulose and/or locust bean gum. Reported data suggested the feasibility of locust bean and carboxymethylcellulose, as thickening and structuring agents for baking industry. The microstructure of control bread dough with no added fibres differs greatly from that of structuring/prebiotic supplemented samples.