Abstract
Many types of baked goods are firmly rooted in the food habits of many people in different countries. Although there have been great strides in improving milling, kneading, and baking, given the lack of essential studies, further steps forward need to be taken to understand the effects of storage time and environmental storage conditions, thus motivating this work. The aim of this study is to assess the effects of storage time, using one-way ANOVA, and environmental storage conditions (environmental temperature and humidity), using MOLS analysis, on flour composition, dough rheology, and biscuit characteristics. Seven levels of storage time were tested: T0 (control), T1, T2, T3, T4, T5, and T6. The results showed that flour storage time significantly increased dough tenacity (P) and curve configuration ratio (P/L), and decreased the biscuit volume (best at T0). However, 2–3 weeks of storage highlighted a significant increase in deformation energy (W), an essential alveograph parameter that is closely correlated to the technological success of leavened products. This optimum found for W might be considered as a great stride in understanding the effects of storage time, confirming that wheat flour can reach its optimal performance after two-three weeks of storage, in particular for W. Moreover, this information could be useful, not only for biscuits production, but also for bread and bakery products (and, thus, the entire bakery industry). MOLS analysis highlighted that dough rheology and biscuit characteristics are mainly affected by flour composition (primarily from starch content) rather than environmental storage parameters. In conclusion, to optimize the biscuit characteristics, it is necessary to use flours with a low content of damaged starch by selecting the most suitable milling technique and carefully managing the operative parameters.
Highlights
Bread and bakery products are considered worldwide as staple foods, essential for human nutrition
multiple ordinary least square regression (MOLS) analysis highlighted that dough rheology and biscuit characteristics are mainly affected by flour composition rather than environmental storage parameters
The results presented in this paper show the statistically significant effects of storage time on dough rheology and biscuit characteristics
Summary
Bread and bakery products are considered worldwide as staple foods, essential for human nutrition. As highlighted in an earlier work [1], bread, in particular, can be considered as the oldest type of baked good (dating back to 10,000 years BCE). One example might be a traditional Tuscan biscuit named biscotto di Prato This traditional product takes its name from the municipality of production (i.e., Prato), a town very close to Florence. It is very important not to confuse the biscotto di Prato with the well-known Cantuccini Toscani PGI (with almonds). These biscuits look similar at first glance, they have some important differences. Cantuccini Toscani have the PGI denomination, unlike biscotto di Prato. Despite the different recipes could influence the final products characteristics, as highlighted in earlier works, these products are mainly influenced by the four major stages of the production chain, i.e., milling, kneading, leavening, and baking [1,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10]
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