Correlations of the Breadmaking Performance of Wheat Flour with Rheological Measurements on a Micro-scale

For the characterization of wheat quality, micro-extension tests for dough and gluten and a micro-baking test were developed using comparable dough compositions, the same mixing temperature and cultivar-specific mixing times. By means of these methods, the flours of 26 wheat samples were studied for dough development time, maximum resistance and extensibility of dough and gluten and loaf volume of the baked products. Standard methods (rapid-mix-test, gluten index determination) were used for comparison. The results indicated that the rheological properties of dough and gluten as well as the gluten index are correlated higher with the optimised micro-baking test than with the standard baking test. If flour protein or wet gluten content is included in the correlations, the extension test of gluten, which can be performed easily and reproducibly, allows a reliable prediction of the loaf volume obtained by the micro-baking test.