Dough and crumb grain changes during mixing and fermentation and their relation with extension properties and bread quality of yeasted sweet dough

Dough and crumb grain evolution of yeasted sweet dough, as affected by the combined effect of mixing (dough development) and fermentation times, and their relation to rheological properties and bread quality was studied. Structural changes of under or optimum developed dough, without fermentation, were related mainly to increments in extensibility (P > 95%), without a noticeable change in pH. At all mixing stages, fermentation duration increased R_m, whereas extensibility and pH decreased. When plotting R_m with bread specific volume, cell area, total cell area fraction or yellow crumb colour parameter (b*) simple mathematical models, with determination coefficients larger than 0.85 were obtained. Bread crumb image analysis showed that crumb cell size was not affected by mixing time, while fermentation duration had a direct influence on this parameter, increasing the proportion of the smallest and the largest crumb cells, without changing cell density, possibly as a result of Ostwald ripening, coalescence and separation-redistribution mechanisms.