Journal of Cereal Science 69 (2016) 158e165

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Journal of Cereal Science

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jcs

Rheological and thermal properties of dough and textural and

microstructural features of bread obtained from nixtamalized corn/
wheat our blends
A.Y. Guadarrama-Lezama a, H. Carrillo-Navas b, E.J. Vernon-Carter b, J. Alvarez-Ramirez b, *
a

noma del Estado de M


n esq. Paseo Tollocan s/n, Col. Residencial Colo

n, C.P. 50120, Toluca, Estado de
Facultad de Qumica, Universidad Auto
exico, Paseo Colo
M

exico, Mexico
b

ulica, Universidad Auto

noma Metropolitana-Iztapalapa, San Rafael Atlixco No. 186, Col. Vicentina, C.P.
Departamento de Ingeniera de Procesos e Hidra
09340, M

exico, D.F., Mexico

a r t i c l e i n f o

a b s t r a c t

Article history:
Received 28 September 2015
Received in revised form
9 March 2016
Accepted 10 March 2016
Available online 11 March 2016

Bread made with corn our has a rich tradition in several countries. On the other hand, nixtamalization is
a process conferring malleability and functionality to corn our via calcium incorporation. The aim of this
work was to study the rheological and thermal properties of dough, and the textural and microstructural
features of bread obtained from nixtamalized corn (NCF)/wheat our (WF) blends. Thermal analysis
indicated that NCF promoted the interaction between starch molecules and lipids. The incorporation of
NCF improved the viscoelasticity of dough, indicative that the participation of lower amounts of gluten
(protein) due to WF substitution by NCF might be compensated by the cross-linking capacity of calcium
ions. Morphological analysis via SEM showed that as NCF was incorporated, a more compact and porous
microstructure arose that caused breads to exhibit increasing hardness, but a decrease in the rest of the
textural characteristics. Increasing amounts of NCF led to more homogeneous bread crust color, characterized by a more subdued lightness and yellow hue. Overall, NCF offers a mean to improve dough
viscoelasticity and granular microstructure of wheat-based bread.
2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords:
Dough
Nixtamalized corn our
Thermal properties
Viscoelasticity

1. Introduction
Bread made with wheat our accounts for about 50% of dietary
energy requirements in many countries. Although ours from other
botanical sources offer also high carbohydrate contents, the widespread usage of wheat our for bread making can be attributed to
its relatively high gluten content. Wheat proteins have the ability of
developing a viscoelastic network when the our is mechanically
blended with water. In turn, the viscoelastic network allows an easy
manipulation of dough for fabrication of a wide diversity of specialties. Besides, the viscoelastic matrix enables the retention of the
gas produced during fermentation, leading to aerated crumb bread
morphology.
It has been recognized that high costs of wheat importation in
regions where climatic conditions do not favor its cultivation (e.g.,
tropical and sub-tropical Africa) limits its utilization as a source of

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: jjar@xanum.uam.mx (J. Alvarez-Ramirez).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jcs.2016.03.011
0733-5210/ 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

dietary energy (Goodall et al., 2012). This problem has been

addressed by the use of ours from non-wheat botanical sources,
including rice (Torbica et al., 2010; Torres et al., 2014), chestnut
(Demirkesen et al., 2010; Torres et al., 2014), soybean (Ribotta et al.,
2004) among others. Results obtained with non-wheat ours are
motivating, although some problems related to dough viscoelasticity and bread texture require further research (Berta et al., 2015).
On the other hand, the bread production in underdeveloped economic and impoverished regions has been addressed by using
inexpensive our from local botanical sources, like cassava
(Onyango et al., 2011), and sorghum (Schober et al., 2005).
Corn our has been also considered for bread production (Brites
et al., 2010; Falade et al., 2014). Besides its low-gluten content, corn
is cultivated in many countries with large climate diversity. The use
of corn our for bread preparation has an ethnic tradition in some
countries. Pan de Elote in Mexico and Broa in Portugal are examples
of traditional bread recipes incorporating corn our. Given the
reduced protein content (about 2% w/w) of corn ours, the bread
production is confronted with some challenges, including weak
viscoelastic networks and poor gas retention capacity. In this

A.Y. Guadarrama-Lezama et al. / Journal of Cereal Science 69 (2016) 158e165

regard, an accurate understanding of bread making processes

involving corn ours is a requisite for developing reduced- and
free-gluten bread formulations, and for designing bread specialties
with tailored textural properties.
Nixtamalization is a lime-based alkaline corn grain treatment
used since pre-Columbian Mesoamerican cultures, which results in
an increased nutritional value, enhanced avor and aroma, and
reduced mycotoxins contents (Sefa-Dedeh et al., 2004; Estrada
n et al., 2015). Some corn oil fractions are broken down into
Giro
monoglycerides and diglycerides, while bonding of proteins is
facilitated. Besides, the divalent calcium provided by lime acts as a
cross-linking agent for starch chains, improving gel viscoelastic
properties and network stability (Lobato-Calleros et al., 2015). Besides the functional availability of calcium, nixtamalization via
calcium cross-linking effects can partially compensate the poor
functionality of corn our proteins (i.e. mainly zein). Unlike wheat
our, corn our, when hydrated, does not form a viscoelastic dough,
due in part from the marked hydrophobicity of corn proteins. Also,
corn proteins have different structures than wheat proteins, which
impart them with different reactivities (Lawton, 1992). It has been
shown that nixtamalization is able to increase the protein and
resistant starch levels (Rendon-Villalobos et al., 2002). Besides,
nixtamalization leads only to slight degradation of antioxidant
content of colored corn grains (Mora-Rochin et al., 2010).
Commercially available nixtamalized our is worldwide available,
inexpensive (about 0.5 $/kg as compared with about 0.6 $/Kg for
standard wheat our) and enriched with Zn, niacin, vitamin B1, B2
and B3. These features make nixtamalized corn our an attractive
ingredient for enhancing the nutraceutical content of bread and the
malleability of dough variations.
The aim of this work was to evaluate the rheological and thermal properties of dough, and the textural and microstructural
characteristics of bread obtained made from commercial nixtamalized corn/wheat our blends.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Materials
Wheat our (WF; moisture content 13.10 g/100 g, protein 7.39 g/
100 g, dietary bre 0.5 g/100 g, lipids 0.39 g/100 g, ash 0.8 g/100 g)
obtained from Cia. Harinera del Parayas S.A. de C.V. (Guadalajara,
Mexico), nixtamalized corn our (NCF; moisture content 11.10 g/
100 g, protein 2.63 g/100 g, dietary ber 0.65 g/100 g, lipids 0.37 g/
100 g, ash 1.1 g/100 g) manufactured by Maseca S.A. de C.V.
(Monterrey, Mexico). According to manufacturer, the nixtamalized
maize our does not contain additives (e.g., hydrocolloids). Butter,
fresh egg, sugar, baking powder, ultrapasteurized low fat content
milk (3.12% of protein, and 2.8% of total fat) were obtained in a local
supermarket (Walmart, Mexico City). Deionized water was used for
all experimental runs.
2.2. Preparation of the dough variations
The dough variations were made according to traditional recipes
for sponge cake fabrication (see, for instance, www.bbc.co.uk/food/
recipes). Dough variations were prepared in two stages. In the rst
stage, a liquid blend was prepared by mixing milk (22.5 g), fresh
whole egg (75 g, previously homogenized for 1 min before
weighing) and deionized water (3 g). In the second stage, a powder
blend was obtained by combining our (75 g), sugar (75 g) and
baking powder (1.9 g). The batter, a solid water-in-oil emulsion, was
obtained by adding 87.4 g of butter in a bowl and mixing with a
spiral mixer (Taurus, Mexico City) at high velocity (10,000 rpm) for
10 min until total fusion of the fat was achieved. This step induced

159

best distribution of the fatty acids enhancing their textural and

spreadable properties. Subsequently, half of liquid blend was added
and mixed at high velocity (3 min). Then the powder blend was
incorporated and mixed (3 min), and nally the other half of liquid
blend was mixed (3 min). Five dough variations were obtained by
blending NCF:WF in the following proportions: 0:100, 25:75, 50:50,
75:25 and 100:0. The dough variations were coded as D0, D25, D50,
D75 and D100, where the sub-index refers to NCF proportion in the
blend. Dough variations were sealed and stored at 20
C for 30 min
to allow stabilization of components. Three samples were made for
each dough variation.
2.3. Thermal characterization of dough variations
Thermal properties were analyzed by differential scanning
calorimetry (DSC) (TA Instruments, Q1000, New Castle, DE, USA)
previously calibrated with indium. To this end, dough variation
samples (15.0 1 mg) were hermetically closed in aluminum pans
and heated in a calorimeter from 25 to 100
C at constant rate 10
C/
min. Empty aluminum pan was used as reference. Temperatures
(To - onset, Tp - peak, Tm - middle point, Te - endset) and enthalpy of
thermal transitions (DH) were determined with the use of instrument's software Universal Analysis 2000 (New Castle, DE, USA).
Enthalpy values were expressed as J/g starch. Three measurements
were carried out for each sample.
2.4. Rheological properties of the dough variations
Dynamic oscillatory measurements were carried out using a
Physica MCR 300 rheometer (Physica Mebtechnik GmbH, Stuttgart,
Germany), with a cone-plate geometry, in which the rotating cone
was 50 mm in diameter, and cone angle of 2
with a gap of
0.05 mm. About 1.25 mL of sample was carefully placed in the
measuring system, and left to rest for 5 min at 25
C for structure
recovery. Amplitude sweeps were carried out in the range of
0.001e1000% at 1 rad/s. Temperature maintenance was achieved
with Physica TEK 150P temperature control and measuring system.
The storage modulus (G0 ) and the loss modulus (G00 ) were obtained
from the equipment software (US200/32 V2.50) in all cases. Flow
curves were obtained by varying the shear rate from 0.00001 to
1000 s1 and the corresponding shear stress and apparent viscosity
values measured. Creep and recovery tests were performed at a
xed stress of s0 1 Pa in the range of proportionality of strain to
stress. The experiments were performed under controlled stress
mode. Creep phase lasted 150 s, and recovery phase 300 s. As a
result of these measurements, strain values were obtained as a
function of time. Analysis was performed by triplicate. The experimental creep-compliance data were tted by Burger's model,
which can be described as follows:



t
J1 1  expt=lret ; for t < t1
h0


t1
Jt
 J1 1  expt=lret ; for t > t1
h0
Jt J0

where J is the compliance, J0 (1/E0) is the instantaneous compliance, J1 is the retardation compliance, h0 is the (Newtonian) zero
shear stress viscosity, lret is the retardation time-constant and t1 is
the time at which the shear stress is removed. E0 is the instantaneous elastic modulus.
2.5. Bread variations
100 g of each dough variation were put into metallic containers

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A.Y. Guadarrama-Lezama et al. / Journal of Cereal Science 69 (2016) 158e165

whose inner walls had been smeared with a mixture of vegetable

oil/WF in a 4:1 proportion, in order to avoid dough adhesion to
recipient walls. The dough loaded recipients were put into a preheated (180
C, 20% relative humidity, 30 min) automatically
controlled static convection oven (Rational AG, Landsberg, Germany). The containers with the sponge-like bread were withdrawn
from the oven, and let to cool down to warm temperature. At this
point, the sponge-like breads were removed from the containers
and allowed to cool down to room temperature, after which they
were put into waterproof plastic bags. The bread variations were
coded as B0, B25, B50, B75 and B100, where the sub-index refers to NCF
proportion in the blend. Three samples were made for each bread
variation.

2.6. Scanning electronic microscopy (SEM) of bread variations

Bread variations samples were mounted on carbon sample
holders using double-side sticky tape and observed using a JEOL
JMS 7600F scanning electron microscope (Akishima, Japan) with
the LM mode at 15 kV accelerating voltage. Samples were sputtered
with about 20 nm of gold using a Denton Vacuum DESK IV device.
Micrographs at 500 and 1000 magnication were presented.

2.7. Color analysis of bread variations

Color of the crust of each bread variation was analyzed using
Hunter Lab Colorimeter Model 45/0L (Hunter Associates Lab.,
Indiana, USA). The color parameters L*, a* and b* are measures of
lightness, redness/greenness and yellowness/blueness, respectively. This set of parameters was used to characterize the baked
dough samples. To this end, the instrument was calibrated against a
standard white tile (L* 97.63, a* 0.78 and b* 0.25). Three
measurements were carried out for each bread variation.

2.8. Thermal characterization of bread variations

The equipment and procedure described in Subsection 2.3 were
used for thermal analysis of bread variations. To this end, samples
(15 mg) of each bread variation were obtained from the crumb
section and used immediately for measurement.

2.9. Texture prole analysis (TPA) of the bread variations

Texture prole analysis (TPA) was performed using a texturometer (Brookeld, CT3-4500, Massachusetts, USA) equipped with
a cylinder probe (TA25/1000, D 50.8 mm, L 20 mm). The
complete bread variation sample (10 cm diameter, 3 cm height) was
used for texture analysis. The bread sample was compressed to 40%
of their original height. Texture analyses were performed 3 h after
baking. Trigger load and test speed were 10 g and 1 mm/s,
respectively. The parameters of adhesiveness, resilience, cohesiveness, springiness, gumminess and chewiness were obtained using
the texturometer software. Three measurements were carried out
for each bread variation.

2.10. Statistical analyses

Data were analyzed using a one way analysis of variance
(ANOVA) and a Tukey's test for a statistical signicance P  0.05,
using the SPSS Statistics 19.0. All experiments were done in
triplicate.

3. Results and discussion

3.1. Thermal characteristics of dough variations
DSC curves of the dough variations containing NCF showed two
endothermic peaks located between 36
C and 59
C. Endothermic
enthalpies, as well as onset, peak and endset temperatures for the
two peaks are reported in Table 1. It is noted that the endset
temperature of the rst peak corresponds to the onset temperature of the second peak. The low-temperature peak was attributed
to melting of butter components, for which the melting temperature is about 37e39
C. The temperature of the rst peak showed
a slight increase as the NCF content in the NCF/WF blend
increased. In fact, when only WF (D0) was used the peak temperature was 36.7
C, which increased to 38.39
C when only NCF
was used (D100). The increase of the rst peak temperature suggests that NCF promoted the interaction between starch molecules
and lipids. The increase of the melting temperature from 1.7 W/g
for D0 to 4.57 W/g for D100 can be considered as an indicator of the
increased interaction of NCF with the other dough components
(i.e., lipids from butter and proteins from egg). The second peak
temperature was located at about 50
C and can be linked to
incipient swelling of starch granules under limited moisture content. The peak temperature values shown in Table 1 are in line
with those reported by Singh et al. (2003), which were related to
reduced water availability and changes in the underlying binding
nature. Under these conditions, starch granules are unable to
undergo a complete gelatinization process, leading only to partial
swelling of starch granules (Day et al., 2013). In fact, the unavailability of water causes that the remaining ungelatinized starch
granules to melt at higher temperatures, and to encompass variable energy requirements to disorganize their structure (Collar
et al., 2015). In this way, starch granules integrity remains even
after baking of the dough formulations. The estimated end temperature for the second endothermic peak increased from 54.2
C
for D0 (100% wheat our) to 57.89
C for D100 (100% NCF), supporting the postulate that NCF promotes the interaction between
starch granules and dough components. The enthalpy associated
to the second endothermic peak showed a decrease from 7.7 W/g
to 4.65 W/g as WF was completely substituted by NCF. Such
enthalpy decrement can be attributed to calcium cross-linking of
corn starch chains (Lobato-Calleros et al., 2015). It has been also
reported that the presence of hydrocolloids within the dough
matrix can reduce the value of enthalpy under limited water
availability (Tester and Sommerville, 2003). The endothermic
pattern at higher temperatures corresponds to the mixing of the
dough components by thermal effects. Lipid, proteins and starch
granules increase their mobility within the dough matrix, leading
to homogenization of the microstructure. Also, chemical transformations are involved, such as lipid-protein complex formation,
protein folding-unfolding, among others.
3.2. Apparent viscosity of the dough formulations
Fig. 1 a presents the apparent viscosity as function of the shear
rate for the different dough variations. Dough exhibited a typical
apparent viscosity-shear rate prole of structural materials, characterized by three regions: (i) shear-thickening region at very low
shear rate values (<104 s1), which can be attributed to compact
packing of the solids as the dough matrix is initially sheared; (ii) a
Newtonian region exhibiting maximum apparent viscosity values,
where the dough structure bonds were elastically stretched
(~104 s1); and (iii) shear-thinning behavior as the bonds within
the dough matrix are ruptured and the resulting structural elements were aligned along the ow direction (>104 s1). In the

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161

Table 1
Thermal parameters of dough and bread variations.
Sample

Dough variations
To (
C)

D0
D25
D50
D75
D100
Sample

36.72
36.91
37.45
38.22
38.39

0.92
0.65a
1.04a
0.76a
0.97a

38.60
38.68
38.73
39.23
39.89

0.77
0.97a
0.58a
1.10a
1.00a

1.70
2.78
3.92
4.02
4.57

Tm (
C)
a

0.03
0.08b
0.10c
0.14c
0.09d

44.07
44.75
44.83
45.67
45.92

DH2 (J g1)

Tp2 (
C)
a

1.10
1.25a
0.90a
1.17a
0.69a

49.94
50.16
50.55
51.25
51.97

0.89
1.00a
1.52a
1.43a
1.30a

7.69
6.02
5.74
5.31
4.65

Te (
C)
d

0.27
0.18c
0.14b,c
0.17b
0.10a

54.19
55.06
55.43
56.43
57.89

2.17a
1.10a
1.00a
1.58a
1.74a

Bread variations
To (
C)

B0
B25
B50
B75
B100

DH1 (J g1)

Tp1 (
C)
a

90.91
85.66
81.91
77.58
73.33

DH1 (J g1)

Tp1 (
C)
d

1.82
2.57c,d
2.05b,c
2.71a,b
1.98a

112.24
109.76
107.91
104.18
101.85

2.81
2.19b,c
3.02a,b,c
2.60a,b
1.83a

553.70
498.70
441.80
379.00
321.85

Te (
C)
e

13.84
9.97d
12.37c
8.34b
9.65a

174.41
168.07
163.40
156.76
150.09

3.84d
5.04c,d
3.27b,c
3.92a,b
4.20a

Values are means standard error, of three replicates. Superscripts with different letters in same column indicate signicant differences (P  0.05).

Fig. 1. Viscoelastic properties of the different dough variations: (a) apparent viscosity, (b) storage modulus, (c) loss modulus, and (d) loss factor.

Newtonian and the shear thinning regions the values of the

apparent viscosity were higher as the amount of NCF in the dough
increased. For the shear rate range from 0.01 to 10 s1, the
experimental data can be approximated by a power-law equation
of the form happ K,g_ n1 , where happ is the apparent viscosity (Pa
s), K is the consistency coefcient (Pa sn), g_ is the shear rate (s1)
and n is the ow behavior index. The ow behavior index varied
from n 0.18 0.002 for D0 to n 0.11 0.003 for D100. Interestingly, the values of n were comparable with those reported for
gluten-free dough (Korus et al., 2012; Juszczak et al., 2012). The
values of the ow behavior index reect a fast decay of the
apparent viscosity with the shear rate, and a tendency of the
structure to ow more readily as the shear rate is increased.
However, this decaying rate was slightly faster for dough variations incorporating NCF. The effect described above can be
attributed to more homogeneous dough microstructure induced
by enhanced gel network as caused by homogeneous components
of the nixtamalized corn our.

3.3. Viscoelasticity of the dough variations

Fig. 1b and 1c presents the behavior of the dough variations as a
function of strain sweep. All the dough variations showed a linear
viscoelastic region (LVR) for the G0 and G00 moduli when strain % was
lower than about 0.1. At higher strain% values both moduli

Table 2
Parameters of Burger's model of dough variations.
Sample
D0
D25
D50
D75
D100

J0  102 (Pa1)
1.92
0.59
0.65
0.54
0.04

0.10
0.06a
0.06b
0.08c
0.09c

J1  102 (Pa1)
7.98
6.91
6.63
6.31
5.64

0.23
0.26b
0.19b,c
0.20c,d
0.18e

h0  103 (Pa s)

lret (s)
63.27
69.62
76.41
77.61
83.60

0.43
0.62b
0.48c
0.65d
0.62e

1.63
2.83
10.09
12.68
18.86

0.23a
0.24a,b
0.29c
0.33c
0.31d

Values are means standard error, of three replicates. Superscripts with different
letters in same column indicate signicant differences (P  0.05).

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A.Y. Guadarrama-Lezama et al. / Journal of Cereal Science 69 (2016) 158e165

exhibited a fast decay related to the onset of dough uidity.

Increased content of NCF produced higher G0 and G00 values in the
LVR. Nixtamalization involves calcium-mediated cross-linking of

starch chains, which promotes the formation of stronger gel networks (Lobato-Calleros et al., 2015). This way, the addition of NCF
enhanced dough microstructure by improving the viscoelasticity.

Fig. 2. Images of bread variations. Left panel: Photography showing nal color pattern of the bread crest. Figures Center panel: SEM images at 500 x. Right panel: SEM images at
1000 x. Figures (a) to (c) correspond to the bread formulation B0. The crumb appears with some fractures induced by the heterogeneous surface ow when the dough was baked.
Figures (d) to (f) corresponds to the formulation B25, gures (g) to (i) to the formulation B50, gures (j) to (l) to the formulation B75, while gures (m) to (B) to the formulation B100.
Arrows in SEM images indicate fractures and holes in the bread microstructure.

A.Y. Guadarrama-Lezama et al. / Journal of Cereal Science 69 (2016) 158e165

This effect seems to be connected with the ability of NCF to bind

water as cross-linked starch chain molecules form an entangled
microstructure where water can be trapped (Laria et al., 2005).
Fig. 1 d presents the loss factor tan(d) G00 /G0 as function of strain.
Values tan(d) < 1 reect a solid-like behavior, while values tan(d)
> 1 denote an increased tendency to ow. The crossover from solidlike to liquid-like behavior was located at about 25% strain for all
dough variations. Lower tan d values (more solid like) were
exhibited by the dough variations having higher NCF contents.
Despite that the absence of gluten in dough matrix limits the ability
of forming a strong viscoelastic microstructure, it seems that the
addition of NCF not only compensates the adverse effects caused by
gluten reduction, but enhances the viscoelasticity and malleability
of dough, conferring the network with a stability capable of withstanding a large range of deformations.
3.4. Creep-recovery curves of dough variations
The creep-recovery patterns (not shown) were consistent with
viscoelastic material behavior. Creep and recovery under the action
of a constant shear stress have been linked to reorientation of
bonds and alignment of microstructures in viscoelastic material
(Onyango et al., 2011). The instantaneous, very short-time,
compliance J0(1/E0) can be related to the elastic stretching energy of bonds opposing the action of external forces. Eventually, the
sustained application of a shear stress can lead to the partial
destruction and transformation of bonds within the dough microstructure, which is reected in the extent of the viscoelastic
compliance J0. Table 2 presents the parameters of Burger's model
obtained by tting the experimental data (not shown) using MarquardteLevenberg method from Statistica 8.0 (StatSoft Inc., USA).
D0 presented the highest instantaneous compliance value (lowest
value of the instantaneous elastic modulus), which decreased as the
NCF was added. Besides, in agreement with results in Fig. 1, the
smallest value of the zero shear stress viscosity h0 was obtained for
D0. Interestingly, the viscosity increased in parallel with increasing
content NCF. The retardation time-constant lret showed important
increase with the NCF content, with values ranging from 63.27 s to
83.60 s. It should be noted that the retardation time constants are in
the range (about 58e77 s) of those reported for dough added with
resistant starch (Witczak et al., 2012). In general, the lower value of
storage modulus and shorter relaxation time required by wheat
our dough compared to that required by dough added with NCF
indicate that the former were softer, and less elastic, and that
calcium-mediated starch chain cross-linking added elasticity to
dough. It has been pointed out that the hydration capacity of wheat
dough depends strongly on protein content (Huttner et al., 2010).
This effect is related to the ability of protein to form strongly
interconnected 3D networks, which in turn promotes water
retention under limited water availability. Thus, it may be inferred
that the decreased water retention associated with decreased of
protein (gluten) content was compensated by the ability of NCF to
retain water. In turn, this led to a more compact packing of components within the dough matrix.
3.5. Thermal characteristics bread variations
The thermal properties of samples obtained from the geometric
center of the bread variations were also characterized. The DSC
curves exhibited only one endothermic peak and the results are
summarized in the bottom panel of Table 1. The endothermic effects were displayed over a wide range of temperatures
(73.33e174.41
C). Collar et al. (2015) reported that thermal transitions of bread formulations are specic of the non-wheat our
substitutions. Baking of bread occurred over this temperature range

163

promoting microstructure accommodation, as well as lipid-starch

and lipid-protein degradation. Onset, peak and endset temperatures decreased as the NCF content increased, indicating that its
addition conferred thermal stability to the bread variations.
Enthalpy also decreased as NCF content increased, suggesting that
an increasingly less ordered bread microstructure arose. It is
apparent that gluten has the ability of forming ordered microstructure networks where lipids and starch chains are evenly
distributed. In contrast, the decrease in protein content caused by
the substitution of WF by NCF led to the formation of a more
disordered microstructure.
3.6. Color analysis of bread variations
Color is an important feature of baked products because in
addition to texture and aroma, it determines in great measure the
consumer preference. Physicochemical characteristics (moisture,
pH, reducing sugars, and microstructure) of the dough are determinants of color characteristics (Esteller and Lannes, 2008). The
left panel in Fig. 2 illustrates the crust appearance of the baked
dough variations. The crust color of B0 was rather inhomogeneous,
presenting some yellow to brown regions. Increasing amounts of
NCF led to more homogeneous crust color. Browning caused by
Maillard reactions between proteins and reducing sugars is inuenced by distribution and availability of water (i.e., moisture) in the
dough matrix. It has been reported that crust hydrothermal pathways determine the content of non-gelatinized starch and hence of
the surface homogeneity of bread crust (Della Valle et al., 2012). It is
apparent that dough components had larger mobility when NCF
was absent or the contents were relatively low, which caused an
inhomogeneous aggregation of moisture on the bread surface.
Table 3 presents the color parameters of the bread variations.
Lightness was higher, but the yellowish color tended to decrease as
NCF contents increased. Non-signicant differences (P < 0.05) in
color parameters were found for the bread variations B50, B75 and
B100.
3.7. Morphology of bread variations
Fig. 2 presents SEM images of bread variations. Center and right
panels corresponds to SEM images with a magnication of 500
and 1000, respectively. The crust of B0 exhibited some fractures as
consequence of the higher volume it achieved. As the NCF content
was increased, the bread crust showed was more homogeneous
aspect, although the bread volume achieved was lower. The SEM
images in Fig. 2(b) and (c) for B0 indicated an irregular distribution
of wheat starch granules and solid fractions (lipids, proteins,
amylose/amylopectin debris). It seems that these components led
pairwise complexes formation, including amylose-lipids (Thachil
et al., 2014; Gerits et al., 2014), lipid-protein (Pomeranz and
Chung, 1978). The incorporation of NCF induced a granular-like
microstructure where swelled starch granules can be observed.
Given the limited water availability, starch granules underwent

Table 3
Color parameters of the bread variations.
Sample

L*

B0
B25
B50
B75
B100

61.04
58.12
55.27
54.21
54.34

a*

1.2a
0.9b
1.1c
1.2c
1.1c

9.92
10.36
11.60
11.42
11.73

b*

0.7a
0.8b
0.7b
0.9b
0.7b

26.43
25.56
22.88
22.12
22.24

1.2a
1.1b
0.9b
1.0b
0.9b

Values are means standard error, of three replicates. Superscripts with different
letters in same column indicate signicant differences (P  0.05).

164

A.Y. Guadarrama-Lezama et al. / Journal of Cereal Science 69 (2016) 158e165

Table 4
Textural prole analysis (TPA) of bread variations.
Sample

Hardness (g)

B0
B25
B50
B75
B100

4893.50
5104.00
5409.50
5757.00
6121.50

97.87e
78.76d
75.33c
82.48b
95.27a

Adhesiveness (mJ)
0.92
0.81
0.65
0.49
0.23

0.03d
0.01c
0.02b
0.02b
0.01a

Resilience
0.19
0.16
0.12
0.11
0.09

0.02c
0.01b,c
0.01a,b
0.01a
0.01a

Cohesiveness
0.56
0.49
0.38
0.36
0.29

0.01e
0.02d
0.02c
0.01b
0.01a

Springiness (mm)
12.91
11.50
10.06
9.30
7.43

0.32e
0.35d
0.20c
0.25b
0.16a

Gumminess (g)
1989.80
1655.30
1443.70
1176.00
997.90

35.82d
38.80c
31.21b
33.88a
28.45a

Chewiness (mJ)
319.72
213.06
162.81
155.70
102.22

4.80e
5.72d
3.01c
2.80b
1.97a

Values are means standard error, of three replicates. Superscripts with different letters in same column indicate signicant differences (P  0.05).

only incipient swelling and hence the granule integrity was

retained after baking. Besides, the calcium-mediated cross-linking
added stability to starch granules in the face of swelling under
limited water availability (Lobato-Calleros et al., 2015). It is also
noted that NCF induced large caverns in the bread microstructure
(indicated by arrows) as caused by a more compact packing of
dough components. This suggests that the microstructure of formulations with increased NCF content is more disordered, which
was reected in the enthalpies of dough and bread in Table 1.
3.8. Textural properties of the bread variations
Table 4 summarizes the textural properties of the bread variations. Except hardness, all the textural characteristics decreased
signicantly as NCF content increased. As already observed in SEM
images of Fig. 2, the results corroborate that the incorporation of
NCF had an important impact in the microstructure of the bread
variations. These textural changes can be associated to the moisture
content of the bread variations (15.4, 14.2, 13.6, 11.8 and 10.4% for
B0, B25, B50, B75 and B100, respectively), which decreased as the
gluten fraction in the bread variations decreased, and affected the
bread variations textural properties. For instance, adhesiveness
changed from 0.92 for B0 to 0.23 for B100. The effect of the NCF was
also relevant for cohesiveness, which decreased from 0.56 to 0.29.
The microstructure of sponge-like breads containing NCF was
weaker as compared to that from the pure wheat our formulation.
This effect can be attributed to the more compact packing of dough
material as shown in Fig. 2. The formation of caverns and fractures
reduced the cohesiveness of the bread microstructure, which in
turn led to reduced textural properties.
4. Conclusions
The use of nixtamalized corn and wheat our blends affected
the thermal and rheological properties of doughs, and textural and
microstructural characteristics of breads, compared to their counterparts made with only wheat our. Modied properties included
enhanced steady-state viscosity and increased trend to ow as the
shear rate was increased. Thermal analysis revealed incipient
gelatinization of starch granules resulting from limited water
availability within the dough matrix and calcium-mediated crosslinked starch chains in the NCF fraction. Bread variations surface
(crust) were more homogeneous, and had a less yellow hue as the
NCF content was increased. Dynamic and steady-state viscoelastic
parameters of dough increased as the NCF content in the dough
variations increased, probably due to calcium mediated crosslinking. Nevertheless, all the textural characteristics of bread variations decreased as NCF content increased, with the exception of
hardness that increased. It is apparent that as wheat our was
substituted, less gluten was available, and a more compact bread
microstructure arose that increased hardness, but decreased the
rest of the textural characteristics. Overall, the addition of NCF offers a suitable alternative to obtain bread with reduced gluten
content and acceptable rheological and textural properties. A

balanced combination of wheat and nixtamalized corn ours can

be used to tune desired functional characteristics of bread.
Conict of interest
The authors declare no conict of interest.
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