Understanding the effect of emulsifiers on bread aeration during breadmaking

BACKGROUND Much research has been done to explain the action of emulsifiers during breadmaking, but there is still plenty unknown to elucidate their functionality despite their diverse chemical structure. The aim of the present study was to provide some light on the role of emulsifiers on air incorporation into the dough and gas bubbles progress during baking and their relationship with bread features. Emulsifiers like diacetyl tartaric acid ester of monoglycerides (DATEM), sodium stearoyl lactylate (SSL), distilled monoglyceride (DMG‐45 and DMG‐75), lecithin and polyglycerol esters of fatty acids (PGEF) were tested in very hydrated doughs. RESULTS Emulsifiers increase the maximum dough volume during proofing. Emulsifiers increase the number of bubbles incorporated during mixing, observing higher number of bubbles, particularly with PGEF. Major changes in dough occurred at 70 K when bubble size augmented, becoming more heterogeneous. DMG‐75 produced the biggest bubbles. As a consequence, emulsifiers tend to increase the number of gas cells with lower size in the bread crumb, but led to greater crumb firmness, which suggested different interactions between emulsifiers and gluten, affecting protein polymerization during baking. CONCLUSION The progress of the bubbles during baking allowed the differentiation of emulsifiers, which could explain their performance in breadmaking.

Authors acknowledge the financial support of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (Project AGL2014‐52928‐C2‐1‐R), the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER) and Generalitat Valenciana (Project Prometeo 2017/189).

Peer reviewed