Heat-moisture treatment can modulate all-purpose wheat flour for short dough biscuit making: Evidences and mechanism

In view of the merits of all-purpose wheat flour (APWF) to soft wheat flour (SWF) in cost and protein supply, the feasibility of heat-moisture treatment (HMT, 19% moisture for 1 h at 60, 80 and 100 °C, respectively) to modify APWF as a substitute SWF in making short dough biscuits was explored. For underlying mechanisms, on the one hand, HMT reduced the hydration capacity of damaged starch particles by coating them with denatured proteins. On the other hand, HMT at 80 °C and 100 °C significantly denatured gluten proteins to form protein aggregates, highly weakening the gluten network in dough. These two aspects jointly conferred APWF dough with higher deformability and therefore significantly improved the qualities of biscuits. Moreover, the qualities of biscuits from APWF upon HMT-100 °C were largely comparable to that from SWF, even higher values were concluded in spread ratio, volume, specific volume and consumer acceptance. [Display omitted] •Heat-moisture treatment (HMT) modified all-purpose flour for short dough biscuit.•HMT reduced the hydration capacities of flour components, especially that of damaged starch.•HMT weakened starch-starch, protein-starch and protein-protein interactions in dough.•All-purpose flour by HMT-100 °C presented comparable biscuit quality to soft wheat flour.