Structural Changes in the Dough During the Pre-baking and Re-baking of French Bread Made with Whole Wheat Flour

This study investigates the changes occurring in the dough after the pre-baking and re-baking steps in the preparation of frozen bread (French rolls) made with whole wheat flour. At the end of each step, the different parts of the rolls (inner crumb, outer crumb, and crust) were characterized and compared with the dough. The temperature profile obtained showed that the opening of the cut height occurred when the inner crumb temperature was close to 40 A degrees C. The moisture content of the inner and outer crumbs remained high even after the two baking steps, overcoming problems cited in literature such as weight loss and drying out of the re-baked bread. The color of these parts was not affected by the re-baking step. Using RVA, infrared spectrometry, and scanning electron microscopy analyses, it was found that right after pre-baking, the starch granules in the crumb and crust were not completely gelatinized and gelatinization continued during the re-baking process. After pre-baking, a few isolated intact starch granules remained in the inner and outer crumbs, and a greater amount was found in the crust, as observed by polarized light microscopy. This behavior was also observed after the re-baking step. The DSC and X-ray diffraction results indicated that the amylose-lipid complex present or formed in the dough was still present in all parts of the rolls after the pre-baking and re-baking steps.