NAIROBI, KENYA―Since breads and most other wheat-based baked products depend on gluten for structure and other properties, making gluten-free breads with similar properties to typical wheat breads can be difficult. Researchers looked at how adding cellulose derivatives and emulsifiers affected the creep-recovery behavior and staling rate of gluten-free dough.
The products were based on gelatinized cassava starch and sorghum. The doughs containing cellulose derivatives (except 2.4% CMC) had lower resistances to deformation than emulsifier-treated doughs. In addition these samples did not display decreased staling or crumb firmness. Egg white powder improved some of the textural defects of gluten-free bread. Increasing emulsifier concentration decreased crumb firmness and staling rate, but at high levels, most of the emulsifiers produced a weak structure, making products difficult to handle after slicing.