Roles of protein, starch and sugar in the texture of sorghum biscuits

This study investigated why biscuits made from sorghum flour have a similar texture to wheat biscuits despite the absence of gluten in sorghum dough. Electron microscopy revealed that the sorghum prolamin protein bodies remained intact in the sorghum biscuits and hence were unlikely to contribute to biscuit structure and texture. Polarized light microscopy showed that the starch granules in the sorghum biscuits were not gelatinized. Increasing dough water content increased the breaking strength and brittleness of sorghum biscuits. However, increasing the proportion of pre-gelatinized sorghum flour in the dough reduced the breaking strength of the sorghum biscuits, indicating that starch gelatinization weakened the biscuit structure. In contrast, increasing the sucrose content of the dough increased sorghum biscuit breaking strength and brittleness. At 20% sucrose (flour basis), the sorghum biscuits had similar breaking strength and brittleness to both Marie and sugar-snap wheat biscuits. DSC and X-ray diffractometry showed that the sugar in both the sorghum and wheat biscuits was in the glassy state and polarized light microscopy revealed that the sugar glass embedded or enveloped the sorghum biscuit flour particles. It is concluded that this sugar glass matrix is responsible for the strength and cohesiveness of the sorghum biscuits.