Abstract
Water absorption of flour is one of the most important characteristics for bread making. The farinograph is the most common instrument used for measuring water absorption, but it consumes a large amount of sample. This paper describes the availability of the micro-doughLAB, which is able to measure water absorption with 4 g of flour. In order to compare the water absorption measured using the farinograph with those of the micro-doughLAB, we used flour milled using a Buehler laboratory mill. The water absorption measured using the two instruments showed good agreement indicating that the micro-doughLAB can be used in place of the farinograph. Furthermore, measurement using the micro-doughLAB with an auto-drip system, which allows the addition of water to a sample during the test, reduced the measurement time and amount of sample required for a test. In addition to water absorption, ‘stability’ and ‘softening’ values measured using the micro-doughLAB also well correlated with those measured using the farinograph. The water absorption of flour milled with a Brabender Quadrumat Junior was also measured using the micro-doughLAB. There was a high correlation in water absorption between the flour obtained with the Buehler laboratory mill and that obtained with the Brabender laboratory mill, suggesting that the flour from a Brabender laboratory mill is useful for measurement of water absorption. The results from this survey indicate that, like the farinograph, the micro-doughLAB could provide dough property data for small-scale analysis.
