Effect of baking temperature/time conditions and dough thickness on arabic bread quality

A new scoring system for the evaluation of Arabic bread is presented which allows discrimination between flour samples. This system is suitable for the evaluation of bread in commercial bakeries. Dough thickness and baking temperature/time conditions were varied: doughs sheeted to <3.0 mm thick require baking temperatures higher than 500°C whereas doughs that are thicker than this will benefit from temperatures lower than 500°C. Thinner doughs baked at higher temperatures for shorter times produced better quality bread. The processing variables identified as being optimal in this study were incorporated into a test baking method. This method gave reproducible results and greater discrimination between flour samples than a previous method.