Improvement of the Bread-making Properties of Stored or Dry-heated Rice Flour with Sucrose Fatty Acid Ester

Baking with bread dough containing fresh rice flour/fresh wheat gluten flour was found to produce good quality rice bread. However, bread dough containing stored rice flour displayed inferior bread-making properties. The stored rice flour exhibited hydrophobicity, which is known to be closely associated with inferior bread-making properties. To reduce the hydrophobicity of the stored rice flour, various amounts of sucrose fatty acid ester (SFAE) were added during an oil-binding test. When 0.5 mL of 2.7% SFAE solution was added to the stored rice flour in the oil-binding test, the hydrophobicity of the rice flour disappeared. Thus, the addition of SFAE to stored rice flour improved its bread-making properties. Dry-heated rice flour demonstrated the same poor rice bread-making properties as stored rice flour. The addition of SFAE to dry-heated rice flour in the oil-binding test reduced the hydrophobicity of the flour.