Frozen baguette bread dough I. Rheological behavior during storage

• Frozen baguette bread doughs were evaluated as alternative method for bread making.
• A rheological technique was successfully developed for strain hardening measurement.
• New information of frozen baguette bread dough rheological properties was presented.
• Significant relationship between SHI and frozen doughs storage period was found.

The present study aimed to evaluate the effect of frozen dough storage period on the rheological behavior of baguette bread doughs. A uniaxial compression rheological technique was used to measure strain hardening index (SHI) of the doughs and use as a prediction of the bread baking quality. Three types of flours were used to prepare the bread doughs, and the doughs were stored frozen (−18 °C) up to 45 days. All flour doughs at different frozen storage period showed shear thinning behavior, since extensional viscosity decreased with increasing strain rate, after sharp initial rise. The biaxial extensional viscosity decreased with increased frozen storage period, irrespective of flour type. The results also showed similar trends for SHI values. The SHI ranged from 1 to 2, and the doughs with weaker gluten strength possessed the lower SHI values. The flour with the lowest protein content, wet gluten and sedimentation values, produced dough with the lowest SHI values, irrespective of frozen dough storage period. The results of this study revealed that the SHI has a promising potential to be used for assessing the quality of frozen dough during storage, even for flour samples having similar protein content and strength.