REPLACEMENT OF CHLORINE TREATMENT FOR CAKE FLOUR

Treatment of unchlorinated soft wheat flour at 7% flour moisture for 3 0 min at 125 degrees C, and supplementing that flour with 0.12% (fwb) xanthan gum, produced cakes with volumes-that were slightly greater th an those of cakes made with the chlorinated control flour. The crumb g rains were essentially equivalent. The addition of 200 or 300 ppm L-cy steine to cake batter made with unchlorinated, heat-treated flour also produced cakes with volumes and crumb grain scores equal to those of cakes made with the chlorinated control flour. Addition of hydrogen pe roxide plus peroxidase to the cake formula containing heat-treated flo ur also improved the cake volume, grain, and color. However, the volum e was less than that of the cakes made with the chlorine-treated contr ol flour. Heat treatment also reduced the degree of shrink of the cake during baking to a value equal to that of the cakes made with the chl orinated control flour. Enthalpy values of heat-treated flour measured by differential scanning calorimetry showed that starch was not gelat inized during heating.