Influence of water addition methods on water mobility characterization and rheological properties of wheat flour dough

Dough development is the most critical step in the conversion of flour into products. Low field nuclear magnetic resonance (LF-NMR), Texture Analyzer and Rheometer were used to analyze water distribution, uniaxial and biaxial tension, dynamic oscillation characteristics, as well as stress relaxation and creep-recovery characteristics of a series of wheat flour and water prepared in different water adding methods. A certain quantity of water was added to wheat flour for several times, water content and water-holding capacity of dough were improved compared with the dough adding all water to flour once. Meanwhile, tensile resistance and tensile area of dough enhanced. When rheological properties of dough were measured, it was found that tanδ were significantly changed and the degree of polymerization increased. The dough obtained by adding water three times had the largest consistency coefficient, relaxation modulus and smallest flow behavior index, creep compliance, exhibiting well elasticity and poor viscosity. In addition, there was no significant change in doughs with two times water adding in stress relaxation and creep recovery experiments.