ABSTRACT
Dough is a viscoelastic material having complex rheologi-
cal properties that are key parameters in many mechanical
processing steps (kneading, rolling, laminating, forming,
etc.), in dough leavening during fermentation and in oven-
rise. This explains why numerous studies are still devoted
to describe the rheological behavior of dough in two rele-
vant deformation modes: shear and extensional.[1] Many
general books on the theory and practice of rheology may
be found, and among them Steffe’s[2] book may be men-
tioned. Any production of cereal-based baked product
passes through dough formulation. In industrial and
small-scale bakeries, wheat flour dough may contain a
large number of ingredients (sugars, lipids, and emulsi-
fiers). However, their basic structure is always the
same:[3] water dissolves many components (salts, sugars,
polysaccharides, low-molecular-weight proteins, etc.). It
helps in swelling high-molecular-weight proteins consti-
tuting the gluten network and insoluble polysaccharides.
The existence of gluten imparts to wheat its unique ability
to be transformed into bread and similar baking products.
Starch granules are dispersed in the continuous gluten
matrix. The main function of ingredients incorporated
into the formulation is to modify gluten swelling, starch
gelatinization, and interactions between constituents.
However, when comparing wheat from various genetic
origins or grown in different agroclimatical environments,
the rheological properties of formulated dough generally
still reflect those of the more simple flour-NaCl-water
dough: this is the reason why many experimental studies
are devoted to this “simple” dough. Four main parameters
are particularly relevant: water content, because water is a
plastifying agent, kneading conditions, temperature, and
rest time before measurement.
