Physico-chemical and nutritional properties of different high-amylose wheat breads

High-amylose wheat flour has the potential to improve the nutritional value of end products due to a higher resistant starch content than common wheat flour. High-amylose (45% amylose) and type 0 (control, 28% amylose) wheat flours were used for the production of bread. In particular, the direct bread-making method where all the ingredients are mixed together was compared with indirect process carried out in several steps. Various parameters like moisture, weight, volume, resistant starch and crumb hardness were evaluated during a storage period of seven days. The collected outcomes showed that bread with a high amylose content had higher moisture content and lower volume after baking and during storage, regardless of the production method used. The amount of resistant starch, which was four times higher than in type 0 control bread, remained unchanged during the storage. The initial and final values of crumb hardness were similar for the different breads, but fitting the hardness data to a kinetic model, it was found that the staling of high-amylose bread was slower than that of type 0 control bread. Overall, the results of this study demonstrated that high-amylose flour can be used to produce high quality bread with improved nutritional properties.