Waxy durum acts as a unique form of crumb softener in bread

Flour milled from waxy durum grain was incorporated into bread formulations and its effects on crumb softness and loaf volume compared to those of added fats and emulsifiers. Waxy durum had a small effect on increasing loaf volume, and little of this effect could be explained by dough height or oven spring; effects of most other additives were closely related to dough height or oven spring. For all additives, the relationship between crumb softness and loaf volume fitted a power law relationship. Waxy durum and some of the additives had a greater softening effect than predicted from their effect on volume while others produced a much firmer crumb. With only one exception, when combined with other additives waxy durum reduced compression of the crumb more than predicted on the basis of the effects on loaf volume of the additives alone. In common with some of the added lipids, during compression analysis, crumb prepared with waxy durum flour had similar levels of structural damage as crumb baked from the standard formulation; other lipids and emulsifiers produced more fragile crumb. Waxy durum flour appears to have unique effects on crumb softness.