Improving the physicochemical properties of whole wheat model dough by modifying the water-unextractable solids

Most studies on improving the quality of wheat flour products have been based on eliminating the adverse effects of water-unextractable arabinoxylan (WUAX) using pentosanase (Pn), but the interactions between the arabinoxylan released from WUAX and gluten have rarely been studied. The results demonstrated that Pn decreased the molecular weight of soluble AX released from water-unextractable solids (57,120-18,450 g mol−1). The released AX increased the amount of glutenin macropolymer, accompanied by a decrease in glutenin solubility, but made it more difficult for the free sulfhydryl to form disulfide bonds between glutenin proteins. This might be beneficial to the formation of uniform and fine crumb structures, and produced whole wheat Chinese steamed bread (CSB) with higher volume and lower firmness. However, the gluten network became more open and easier to fracture at higher level of Pn, which made it different to the further improvement in the texture of CSB.