Characterization of bread dough: Rheological properties and microstructure Original Research Article

The change in rheological and microstructural properties of wheat flour dough as a function of water and yeast content, and with addition of hydrocolloids is described. The rheological properties vary with the size of the bubbles and measurements were made on controlled shear/stress rheometer. Confocal laser scanning microscope (CLSM), accompanied with image analysis technique, was used to obtain microstructure of the dough. It was found that with an increase in water content the moduli values decreased and the mean bubble diameter increased. As concentration of yeast increased, the bubbles became smaller and the moduli values increased. Addition of hydrocolloids like sodium alginate and xanthan gum led to increased moduli values and generally caused the bubbles in the dough to shift towards narrower distributions. An inverse relation between bubble size and storage modulus is found.