Wheat bran stabilization and its effect on cookies quality

Abstract

Wheat bran are widely used as a source of dietary fiber with enhanced health benefits. However, its hight application level in bakery products caused lower quality of these products (eg. reduced volume and increased hardness of product). Different mechanical, physical or chemical methods are used for modification of wheat bran physicochemical properties. Wheat bran obtained from two wheat variety was used to evaluate the effect of bran stabilization process on qualitative properties of baked goods. Stabilization was performed using hot air and microwave heating. Threated and unthreated wheat bran were blended with wheat flour at 5, 10 and 15% substitution level. Influence of bran addition on rheological properties was evaluated using Mixolab 2. Stabilized wheat bran increased water absorption up to 11.7% (hot air stabilization) and 11.9% (microwave stabilization), respectively. Hot air stabilization of wheat bran improved heat resistance of dough proteins during mixing and the stability of hot gel during heating. Stabilization process of wheat bran using both methods also increased the volume and spread ratio values of enriched cookies. Cookies incorporated with hot air treated bran were significantly softer than cookies contained raw bran. Sensory evaluation showed that addition of stabilized bran improved the shape and taste of cookies. Additionally, it was concluded that the most acceptable cookies were obtained at 5% addition level of bran stabilized using microwave heating.

Keywords

• wheat bran
• stabilization
• dough rheology
• cookie