Evaluation of viscoelastic properties and air-bubble structure of bread containing gelatinized rice

The impact of addition of gelatinized rice porridge to bread has been investigated on loaf volume, viscoelastic properties and air-bubble structure. We prepared four variety of bread: bread containing rice porridge (rice porridge bread), bread containing gelatinized rice flour (gelatinized rice flour bread), and wheat flour and rice flour breads for references. Instrumental analyses the bread samples were carried out by volume measurement of loaf samples, creep test and digital image analysis of crumb samples. Rice porridge bread showed the maximum specific volume of 4.51 cm3/g, and even gelatinized rice flour bread showed 4.30 cm3/g, which was larger than the reference bread samples (wheat and rice flour breads). The values of viscoelastic moduli of gelatinized rice flour bread and rice porridge bread were significantly smaller (p < 0.05) than those of wheat flour and rice flour breads, which indicates addition of gelatinized rice flour or rice porridge to bread dough encouraged breads softer. Bubble parameters such as mean air- bubble area, number of air-bubble, air-bubble area ratio (ratio of bubble area to whole area) were not significantly different among the bread crumb samples. Therefore, the bubble structures of the bread samples seemed to similar, which implied that difference of viscoelasticity was attributed to air-bubble wall (solid phase of bread crumb) rather than air-bubble. This study showed that addition of gelatinized rice to bread dough makes the bread with larger loaf volume and soft texture without additional agents such as gluten.