Expansion profiles of wheat doughs fermented by seven commercial baker's yeasts

Commercial baker's yeast consists of Saccharomyces cerevisae, however the strain can vary in each baker's yeast, which might influence the dough fermentation time. The scope of this research was to investigate the dough expansion of wheat doughs fermented by seven commercial baker's yeasts at different yeast concentrations (2.88·1011, 5.76·1011 and 8.64·1011 colony forming units/kg flour) and fermentation temperatures (5 °C, 15 °C, 25 °C and 35 °C). Dough expansion was investigated by monitoring the dough height and it was found to be described well by a first order kinetic model. Doughs fermented with four of the seven yeasts generally had higher kinetic rate constants and hence shorter fermentation times compared to fermentation with the other three yeasts. The shortest fermentation times were found for doughs fermented at 25 °C and the highest yeast concentration, a trend found for all the yeasts tested. The differences in the kinetic rate constants indicate a differentiation in yeast strain among the commercial baker's yeasts emphasising the great importance of the choice of baker's yeast for the dough fermentation time.