Effect of freezing and frozen storage on the staling of part-baked bread

The effect of part-baking, freezing, frozen storage, thawing, rebaking on the aging behaviour of bread was evaluated. The amylopectin modification during the process was assessed by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), while changes in bread quality were followed by crumb hardness measurements. During frozen storage no retrogradation of amylopectin was detected in the part-baked dough. When analysing the aging of the rebaked samples, it was observed that the time of frozen storage produced a progressive increase of the retrogradation temperature range of the amylopectin, and also great energy was required for amylopectin melting at longer storage period, indicating that structural changes of amylopectin were produced during frozen storage. Regarding the quality of the fresh bread resulted after rebaking, crumb hardness increase with the time of frozen storage, and also the hardening rate during aging was dependent on that time. Crumb hardness results of the fresh bread and also DSC studies indicate that some changes are produced during the frozen storage. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.