Dough profiling: An instrumental method for dough stickiness measurement

Dough profiling, an adaptation of Texture Profile Analysis, was used to measure viscoelastic properties of doughs with varying degrees of stickiness. Results were compared to sensory stickiness scores to determine the applicability of the dough profiling procedure as a stickiness evaluation method. Dough stickiness is a composite characteristic resulting from the balance between adhesive and cohesive forces of a dough. Adhesive and cohesive properties were not assessed separately. Ten flour and water model dough systems, representing an evenly distributed series of stickiness levels from nonsticky to extremely sticky, as determined by sensory methods, were prepared from a standard bread wheat flour using increments of alpha-amylase or protease enzymes. Profiling was performed on a Lloyd materials testing machine equipped with a size-adjustable profiling cell and using settings determined by response surface optimization. Twenty-four parameters were extracted from the two compression, relaxation, and tension sections of the profiling curve. All of the compression and tension parameters that were read directly from the curves, except stringiness, had coefficients of variation of <10%. Peak compression forces, average compression forces, tension work values for both cycles of the profile, and several relaxation parameter values were highly correlated with sensory stickiness scores (r greater than or equal to 0.95). The ten doughs could each be clearly distinguished on plots of the first two canonical variables extracted from the full set of profile parameters. Dough profiling is a promising technique for evaluation of dough stickiness.