Creep‐Recovery of Wheat Flour Doughs and Relationship to Other Physical Dough Tests and Breadmaking Performance

Measurements of creep‐recovery of flour‐water doughs were made using a dynamic mechanical analyzer (DMA) in a compression mode with an applied probe force of 50 mN. A series of wheat flour and blend samples with various breadmaking potentials were tested at a fixed water absorption of 54% and farinograph optimum water absorption, respectively. The flour‐water doughs exhibited a typical creep‐recovery behavior of a noncross‐linked viscoelastic material varying in some parameters with flour properties. The maximum recovery strain of doughs with a fixed water absorption of 54% was highly correlated ( r = 0.939) to bread loaf volume. Wheat flours with a large bread volume exhibited greater dough recovery strain. However, there was no correlation ( r = 0.122) between maximum creep strain and baking volume. The maximum recovery strain of flour‐water doughs also was correlated to some of the parameters provided by mixograph, farinograph, and TA‐XT2 extension.