The present study was aimed at improving bread-making performance of two spelt cultivars from organic production differing in dough rheological properties. For this purpose, a small composite design was employed to study the combined effect of xylanase (XYL), ascorbic (ASC) and citric (CIT) acid on bread characteristics and, finally, to optimize their doses. In both cultivars, XYL exerted improving effects on specific volume and crumb firmness. In stronger spelt cultivar, there was a significant ASC/XYL synergistic effect on improving loaf volume and crumb properties. CIT showed crumb softening effect in both cultivars and increased crumb resilience (weaker spelt being more sensitive). Optimized formulation contained (in mg/kg): 50 ASC/90 CIT/60 XYL for stronger and 20 ASC/10 CIT/120 XYL for weaker spelt cultivar. The optimized formulations allowed substantial increases in specific volume (by 45%) and crumb resilience (30%) for stronger and crumb softening (36%) for weaker spelt cultivar.
PRACTICAL APPLICATIONSSpelt wheat is an important cereal in organic cultivation and spelt products are highly demanded by health-conscious customers. Most commonly, spelt is processed into flour and further into bread. Technologically, spelt is impaired in comparison to common bread wheat, although high diversity exists in bread-making potential within cultivars. In practice, it is not rare that spelt bread-making results in production of unappealing, small bread loaves with dense, crumbly structure. Considering the much higher price of spelt bread, low quality of loaves may diminish its valorization in spite of its unique nutritional and health properties. This work presents that by combining improvers based on enzyme (xylanase), ascorbic and citric acid, which are permitted in organic foods, it is possible to substantially improve spelt bread volume and crumb properties. bs_bs_banner
Journal of Food Quality