Enhancing the breadmaking quality of ancient grains through synergistic emulsifier treatment and extrusion processing

The objective of this study was to improve the overall breadmaking characteristics of ancient wheat species through emulsifier treatment, extrusion processing, and by the synergistic effect of these two approaches. Ancient wheat flours were treated with four emulsifiers—distilled monoglycerides (DMG), diacetyl tartaric acid ester of monoglycerides (DATEM), sodium stearoyl lactylate (SSL), and defatted soy lecithin—at three different concentrations. Extrusion was conducted at three different screw speeds (100, 150, and 200 rpm) with a constant moisture content of 30%. Following these different treatments, pasting, mixing, and thermal properties of the flour samples were examined. Concomitantly, whole grain breadmaking was conducted by combining the treated flours with base flour. SSL at 0.45% increased pasting viscosities and enhanced dough handling properties in einkorn and spelt flour samples. Extrusion, in general, significantly (p < 0.05) increased water absorption value by inducing starch damage. Extrusion impacted the dough stability and dough development time negatively with increasing intensity. The increase in extrusion intensity also negatively affected the pasting parameters of extruded flour by complete gelatinization and loss of crystallinity. The water absorption value of extrudate-added bread dough increased significantly (p < 0.05). However, emulsifier treatment or extrudate-added flour did not improve breadmaking attributes of emmer bread. The overall volumes of emulsifier-treated (50%) einkorn and emmer breads were higher than that of base flour bread. Overall, our findings indicated that optimizing the combination of emulsifier treatment and extrusion can potentially improve dough handling and breadmaking properties of ancient wheat species.