Frozen dough bread: Quality and textural behavior during prolonged storage – Prediction of final product characteristics

Although dough rheology has been extensively investigated, its relation to bread characteristics still remains a very important aspect, which is not fully examined or understood. This statement is even more true in the case of frozen bakery products, which are subjected to prolonged storage under freezing conditions before baking. Aim of this study was to investigate the quality characteristics of frozen dough products through weight, specific volume, crumb/crust color, and texture measurements in dough and bread samples as well as to correlate the textural characteristics of dough with those of the finished products in order to predict product’s behavior and shelf-life after prolonged storage. Results indicate that during the first 2 months of frozen storage samples degraded rapidly. However, they stabilized after 2–3 months and remained stable thenceforth presenting rather satisfying quality characteristics even after 9 months of storage. Moreover, the textural behavior of the final bread products can be fairly predicted with simple computations by using data from dough compression.