Staling of bread as affected by waxy wheat flour blends

Crumb softness and improved shelf life of bread is often achieved by incorporating expensive shortenings in the formulation. We hypothesized that similar results could be achieved by blending bread wheat flour with waxy (low amylose) durum wheat flour. White pan bread was baked from 10, 20, and 30% waxy durum. wheat flour composites and evaluated for loaf volume and crumb firmness over a period of 0, 3, and 5 days. The loaf volumes were not affected by the waxy flour blends, However, as staling progressed over 3-5 days, significant firming of crumb was observed in the control sample compared with loaves containing waxy flour. The firmness was inversely proportional to the level of waxy flour used in the blend. A 20% waxy wheat flour blend was optimal in retarding staling while producing bread quality comparable with the control. It was further established that bread made with 20% waxy flour gave lower firmness values after 5 days of storage in comparison to bread made with 3% shortening. These results suggest that 20% waxy wheat flour could substitute for use of shortening to achieve desirable crumb softness and to retard staling upon storage.