Abstract
Rice bread was made using a mixture of wheat gluten and rice flour from nine high-yielding cultivars and Koshihikari. The rice flour characteristics and rice bread quality using these cultivars were examined to elucidate the difference in bread properties and to determine the characteristics suitable for rice bread making. The amylose and protein contents of the nine high-yielding cultivars were equivalent to or higher than those of Koshihikari. The content of damaged starch, which had been reported to correlate with bread loaf volume, was lower than 4% in rice flour of all cultivars. Rice bread made from high-yielding cultivars had less caved-in shapes and showed equivalent or higher specific loaf volumes than bread made from Koshihikari. Among all the cultivars, Momiroman with the highest amylose content (26.0%) and Kusahonami with a high gelatinization temperature made the hardest breads, which were respectively 1.4 and 3.0 times harder than bread made from Koshihikari. There was no significant correlation between protein content and specific loaf volume or bread hardness. These results indicate that rice flour with about 20% amylose content and low gelatinization temperature makes equally or better shaped bread than Koshihikari, while rice protein has no strong effect on bread shape or texture.
