White breads with Yudane dough (Yudane bread) were made from commercial hard flour by the no first fermentation method. Yudane dough was prepared by mixing boiling water and flour at a ratio of 1:1. The dough at 20 and 40% (w/w, flour base) was added to the total bread dough. In the Yudane bread making method, an extended final proof, lower dough gas retention and gassing power, as well as specific loaf volume were observed compared to conventional bread making (control) without Yudane dough. Also, the moisture content of the Yudane breads increased with increasing water absorption for bread making. The total and reducing saccharide and maltose contents in the water-soluble fraction of Yudane bread also increased with the volume of added Yudane dough. The Yudane breads were very soft just after baking, and the staling (temporal changes in hardness) and starch retrogradation of the breads were somewhat reduced compared to the control. Further, the breads showed generally larger cohesiveness, i.e., the index of bread elasticity. Kinetic analysis indicated reduced bread staling and starch retrogradation rates compared to control. The data showed that the slow staling and unique texture of the Yudane breads were mainly due to the high moisture content, saccharide contents, and flour amylases-modification of swollen and gelatinized starch in the breads, which was related to the higher water absorption and starch swelling and gelatinization levels of the added Yudane dough.Keywords: bread, staling, texture, starch, retrogradation
IntroductionRecently, Yudane bread, which has a slightly sweet taste and texture that is similar to cooked rice, has become very popular in Japan and new items produced using the Yudane dough bread making method (Yudane method) are continuously being developed. The market scale of this bread is now more than a hundred billion yen and sales are continuing to increase in Japan.In this regard, the Yudane method has recently became the main bread making process, especially in large-scale Japanese bakeries.However, the reasons why Japanese consumers prefer this bread and the basis for its increasing popularity are not yet sufficiently clarified. On the other hand, the particular texture and starch properties of bread produced using this method were partially investigated in comparison with conventional bread produced by some of the large-scale Japanese bakeries (Shibata and Kato, 2001;Fukazawa and Kainuma, 2004). Naito et al. (2005) also reported that the microstructure and gluten network of this bread differed from those of conventional bread. In addition, it was reported that the bread contained higher levels of dextrin and reducing saccharides (Yamada et al., 2004).However, no detailed studies investigating bread quality and texture, in particular staling, have been carried out with respect to H. Yamauchi et al. 1072 the Yudane method. Hence, differences in the quality and staling of Yudane bread and conventional bread (control) require elucidation.Thus, in this study, the bread making qual...