Heating conditions and bread-making potential of substandard flour

Heating weak bread flours (commercial cookie flour; commercial stone-milled bread flour; Fundulea, a weak bread cultivar) at 80 degreesC for 15 min ha d a positive effect on bread volume (P < 0.05). This positive effect was be st seen when ascorbic acid was removed from bread formulation. Crumb spring iness and fineness of grain, but not crumb hardness, were significantly imp roved after flour heating; cohesiveness improved with heated cookie flour ( P < 0.05). After heating, flour ol-amylase content was lower; dough-mixing stability of cookie flour doubled to 7.1 min but dropped from 18.0 to 4.8 m in with standard bread flour. Heating offers possibility to upgrade substan dard flour for bread-making applications, especially in oxidant-free dough system.