Selecting Soft Wheat Genotypes for Whole Grain Cookies

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Increased consumption of whole grain cereal products has broad health benefits. Using an experimental whole grain flour‐milling system, we evaluated soft wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) winter wheat genotypes in whole grain flour for use in cookies. Grain from 14 soft winter wheat cultivars grown in two locations within two crop years was milled using a short‐flow flour mill to produce white flour, and then the bran was ground and reconstituted with a white flour to produce a whole wheat flour for comparison baking. Flour samples were evaluated with the solvent retention capacity (SRC) test and the wire‐cut cookie method. Bran fractions were analyzed for water‐extractable nonstarch polysaccharides. Whole grain flour cookie diameter could be estimated from the diameter of cookies made with white flour. The best predictive models for whole grain wire‐cut cookie performance were based on milling softness equivalent and the whole grain sucrose SRC test. Greater softness equivalents and smaller whole grain sucrose SRC values were predictive of larger cookie diameters. Variation in whole grain cookie diameter and texture was due to total water extractable arabinoxylan and the arabinose:xylose ratio in the bran. Early generation selection for whole grain characteristics can use softness equivalent and cookie quality information from white flour. Yet identification of the lines with uniquely superior whole grain flour quality may require whole grain flour analysis.