Aeration and rheology of bran-enriched bread dough during sheeting

Bread quality depends on the aerated structure of the baked loaf, which arises from the unique rheology of wheat flour doughs as a result of the viscoelastic behaviour of wheat gluten proteins. Development of this dough structure is an essential element of dough preparation, generally achieved in modern processes via high speed mixing; however, sheeting of doughs is potentially a more effective and energy efficient approach that gives superior bread quality. Meanwhile, inclusion of bran in the dough formulation enhances the healthiness of bread, but hinders the development of the gluten structure and the resulting quality and palatability of the bread. Using sheeting to enhance dough development could help to offset the damaging effects of bran and allow production of more appealing high fibre breads. Implementing sheeting in a commercial breadmaking operation is more difficult than the use of high-speed mixing; however, recently there have been moves to implement this technology commercially. There is therefore a need to understand in greater detail the development of bread dough by sheeting, and its interactions with bran and with the development of the aerated structure of bread.