Effect of Edible Alkali Addition on the Quality Characteristics of Different Frozen Multigrain Doughs

In this work, the effects of edible alkali additions on the quality of different frozen grain doughs (wheat, buckwheat, corn, and mung bean) were studied, the frozen doughs were prepared by adding different amounts (0%, 1%, 2%, 3%, 4%, 5%) of edible alkali into raw materials, which were based on 100 g of frozen grain dough, respectively. And the doughs were frozen at −30 ℃ for 8 h and freezing at −18°C for 1 d, then thawed at 25 ℃ for 30 min. The water loss rate, water retention rate, pH, textural properties, water distribution were measured, respectively. And changes in the surface network structure and protein structure of the frozen doughs were observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results showed that the additions of edible alkali were negatively correlated with the water loss rate of frozen doughs, it could significantly (P<0.05) affect the pH of frozen doughs. The elasticity of each frozen multigrain dough reached the maximum at 4% of edible alkali addition, and the A₂₁ of wheat dough, buckwheat multigrain dough, corn multigrain dough, and mung bean multigrain dough reached 48.189±1.509, 45.652±2.202, 43.585±2.472 and 43.743±1.155, respectively, which was proved that edible alkali could inhibit water migration and thus kept good water holding capacity. Edible alkali could also effectively improve the gluten protein network structure and quality of frozen multigrain doughs, further improve the quality of frozen multigrain doughs. This paper investigates the effects of edible alkali on the characteristics of frozen multigrain doughs in order to provide some theoretical basis for the improvement of frozen multigrain dough quality and modern production.