Role of dough viscoelastic properties and rice variety in the thermal expansion and the quality of unconventional rice-based bread: case of steamed-cooked ‘Ablo’

Ablo is a rice-based bread consumed in Southern Benin. We investigated the impact of pre-cooking conditions and starch characteristics on dough and Ablo physical properties. The solid-like behaviour of doughs measured by rheological sweep tests appears significantly negatively correlated to Ablo quality; above a starch gelatinisation level (7%–8%), the solid-like behaviour of the doughs increased sharply and the fluidity decreased, leading to Ablo of poor quality. A comparison between three rice cultivars tends to show that rice with low amylose content and/or gelatinisation temperature gives dough with higher fluidity and Ablo with lower density. In addition, a specific rheological test for measuring simultaneously dough expansion and rheological properties during heating has been developed. It shows that whatever the rice variety, thermal expansion of proofed dough begins and is followed by a dough/crumb transition. This innovative rheological test could be used for studying dough/crumb transition for other types of breads.