Abstract:
The aim of this study was to find out the feasibility of preparing rice bread using premix (rice flour, wheat flour, yeast and bread improver) stored for 3, 4, 6 and 8 weeks. Wheat bread, rice– wheat bread and premix breads were compared for their characters. The basic formula of all types of breads contained flour (1kg), yeast (7g), sugar (20g), salt (15g), margarine (40g), bread improver (2g) and water (600g). Based on the determination of gluten percentage of different combinations of rice-wheat flour mixes, flour mix with 20% rice and 80% wheat was selected to prepare premix breads and rice-wheat bread while wheat bread was prepared using 100% wheat flour. The qualities of rice-wheat bread and different premix breads did not differ (p>0.05) among them. Moisture content of wheat bread was significantly lower (p<0.05) than that of rice - wheat bread and premix breads. The total sugar and total protein content of rice-wheat bread and premix breads did not differ significantly (p>0.05) but total sugar contents of rice-wheat bread and premix breads were significantly higher (p<0.05) than that of wheat bread while total protein content of rice-wheat bread and premix breads was significantly lower (p<0.05) than that of wheat bread. Fat content of wheat bread was significantly lower than that of wheat – rice bread and premix breads. There were no significant differences (p>0.05) in ash and crude fiber content among all types of breads. There were no significant differences in specific gravity and the sensory qualities among rice-wheat bread and premix breads, but specific gravity of wheat bread was higher than that of rice-wheat bread and premix breads and there were no significant differences in the sensory qualities except crumb colour and crust colour.
Even though rice-wheat bread and premix breads differed in some qualities with wheat bread, they did not differ in qualities among them. Therefore from this study it can be concluded that rice breads can be prepared using premixes stored for two months with the qualities consistent with that of bread prepared using fresh rice-wheat flour mix.
