Evaluation of Water Absorption Measurement Methods for Wheat Flour

Abstract

　We examined a simple method to measure the water absorption rate of wheat flour for bread, instead of using a farinograph, which measures specific properties of flour. The American Association of Cereal Chemists (AACC) method 56-11 was used. The water absorption rate measured by AACC method 56-11 was similar to the rate measured with the farinograph, with a correlation coefficient of 0.997 between the two methods. The values obtained by the AACC method were 1.1 times higher than the values obtained using the farinograph. A baking test using the water content value as the AACC value divided by 1.1, showed that English bread had good mixing efficiency and was of high quality, in terms of specific volume and height. Results of the baking test confirmed that water content can be calculated from the value obtained using AACC method 56-11, without the need for specialized equipment, such as a farinograph.