ABSTRACT
Introduction Wheat flour dough is the starting material for many products that are attractive to consumers. These include pasta and noodles, cookies, and pastries, as well as aerated products comprising the many different types of bread. The focus here will be on Western-style bread. There are three requirements to form a dough: flour, water, and energy. If one is missing, a dough will not be formed. Energy must be imparted to give dough its unique properties (e.g., by mixing or sheeting through rolls). If we are considering a dough to make aerated products, a fourth ingredient is needed: air:
Flour + water + air + energy → dough (for aerated products)
These four ingredients show a resemblance to the four elements of the medieval philosophers: earth (from which flour is derived), water, air, and fire (corresponding to energy). When energy is imparted to a system comprising a solid (flour), a liquid (water), and a gas (air), it is converted into a material (dough) that has properties of both a liquid and a solid. It has viscosity like a liquid and elasticity like a solid and thus is said to be “viscoelastic”—a property that we will pursue further in Chapter 6.
