Performance Characteristics of Flour

Flour

-Flour can be made from any finely ground cereal including wheat, barley, oats, rye, rice and maize (cornflour).

-The combination of protein and starch in flour give 2 importance performace characteristics:

1) Starch gives the ability to thicken liquids- gelatinisation

2) Protein helps with the formation of gluten, giving baked products a structure.

Gelatinisation

- Starches are polysaccharides made up of many units of glucose.

- Starch consists of 2 molecules- amylose and amylopectin.

- Cornflour is made from the cereal maize and is particularly high in amylose which enhances the ability of cornflour to gelatinise.

Amylose

- Amylose molecules are long and straight- a single chain of glucose molecules.

- Amylose causes sauces and fillings to thicken, turn cloudy when cooked, get thicker as they cool and weep when frozen.

- Amylose masks flavours and thickens foods…