108 A modified procedure (one-stage fermentation) for evaluating flour cracker-baking potential.

L. LEE, P. K. W. Ng, and J. F. Steffe. Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824.

Cracker products are popular around the world, however, there is no standard baking procedure for screening flour potential for cracker-baking quality. Traditional published procedures involve two fermentation stages, limiting the number of flour samples evaluable in a 48 hour period by one operator. This study reports a modified procedure (one-stage fermentation) and compares it with the two-stage procedure for discriminating among flours for making crackers. A wide range of wheat flour samples (19) were used in this study and a set of cracker qualities identified (i.e., weight, dimension, moisture and texture). Results showed that both procedures could discriminate among flours for cracker-making quality. Though differences were found between the two procedures for some measured cracker quality parameters, similar trends among tested flour samples were observed. With one operator, about 15 flour samples could be evaluated for cracker-making potential in a 48 hour period using the modified procedure, as compared to about six samples using the two-stage fermentation procedure.