Rheological properties of gluten-free bread doughs. Relationship with bread quality

Abstract

Little information has been published on the rheological characteristics of gluten-free doughs which greatly vary in consistency, going from batter to dough. The relationships between dough rheology and dough structure and the link between the rheological properties of dough and its behavior during mechanical handling and baking still need to be studied in gluten-free systems. The most frequently used rheological methods applied to gluten-free dough will be presented and briefly explained in this chapter. An overview of the main factors affecting dough rheology and the effect of some common ingredients of gluten-free doughs and how the dough rheology may affect the quality of bread will also be discussed. The design of gluten-free breads remains an empirical task but some conclusions can be drawn from all the rheological and quality studies. The best developed breads were obtained from doughs not too strong or too weak. Nevertheless, consistency seems not to be the sole issue. Pasting properties and other physico-chemical and structural properties of GF matrices also affect the physical quality of the final bread. The high complexity and variability of ingredients used in GF breadmaking, their different nature and properties, are probably responsible for the difficulty of finding a good predictor of bread quality based only in dough rheology.