2001 AACC Annual Meeting Charlotte, North Carolina October 14-18, 2001 Charlotte Convention Center

Measurements of creep and creep recovery of flour-water doughs were made by using a dynamic mechanical analyzer in compression with an applied probe force of 50 mN. A series of flour and blend samples, with various breadmaking potential were tested at fixed water absorption of 54% and farinograph water absorption, respectively. The flour-water doughs exhibited a typical creep-recovery behavior of an uncrosslinked viscoelastic material varying in some parameters with flour properties. Some creep-recovery characteristics of flour-water doughs were found to have good correlation with many of the parameters provided by the mixograph, farinograph, and TA-XT2 extensigraph. The strain recovery of doughs was highly correlated (r = 0.89) to bread loaf volume of flours. Flours with a good baking performance exhibited greater recovered strain of dough. However, there was a poor correlation (r = 0.21) between creep strain and baking volume. The difference in recovery strain was not significant for the same flour using different dough water absorption, the fixed 54% and the optimum farinograph level. The creep-recovery method could be used to discern the intrinsic dough strength or baking performance of flour easily by creep recovery strain.