Effect of flour heating on dough rheology

Heating soft wheat flour at 80°C for 15 min has already been shown to improve its bread-making potential. In this study, flour was fractionated to determine the specific effect of heating on its constituents (gluten, starch, lipid, water-soluble). While gluten was easier to extract and its texture was slacker after heating, it significantly increased dough-mixing stability and development time (P<0.01). Heated water-soluble fraction containing pentosans partly decreased stability (P=0.06).