Combined effect of xylanase, ascorbic and citric acid in regulating the quality of bread made from organically grown spelt cultivars

Abstract

The present study was aimed at improving bread-making performance of two spelt cultivars from organic production differing in dough rheological properties. For this purpose, a small composite design was employed to study the combined effect of xylanase (XYL), ascorbic (ASC) and citric (CIT) acid on bread characteristics and, finally, to optimize their doses. In both cultivars, XYL exerted improving effects on specific volume and crumb firmness. In stronger spelt cultivar, there was a significant ASC/XYL synergistic effect on improving loaf volume and crumb properties. CIT showed crumb softening effect in both cultivars and increased crumb resilience (weaker spelt being more sensitive). Optimized formulation contained (in mg/kg): 50 ASC/90 CIT/60 XYL for stronger and 20 ASC/10 CIT/120 XYL for weaker spelt cultivar. The optimized formulations allowed substantial increases in specific volume (by 45%) and crumb resilience (30%) for stronger and crumb softening (36%) for weaker spelt cultivar. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.