ARS | Publication request: Selecting soft wheat genotypes for whole grain cookies

Submitted to: Crop Science
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: August 12, 2010
Publication Date: January 1, 2011
Repository URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10113/48719
Citation: Souza, E.J., Guttieri, M.J., Sneller, C. 2011. Selecting soft wheat genotypes for whole grain cookies. Crop Science. 51(1):189-197.

Interpretive Summary: Increased consumption of cereal grains as whole grain products is perceived to have broad health benefits. Using an experimental whole wheat flour milling system, we evaluated soft wheat winter wheat genotypes for suitability to make whole grain flour for use in cookies. Grain from fourteen soft winter wheat cultivars grown in two years and locations (four environments) were milled using a short-flow flour mill to produce white flour and then the bran ground and reconstituted with a remaining portion of the white flour to produce a whole-wheat flour for comparison baking. Flour samples were evaluated with the solvent retention capacity (SRC) test and a standard wire-cut cookie method. In addition, bran fractions were analyzed to determine the monosaccharide composition of non-starch polysaccharides. Wire-cut cookie diameter from whole grain soft wheat flour could be estimated from the diameter of cookies made with white flour. The best predictive models for wire cut cookie performance were based on softness equivalent measured through milling and the sucrose SRC test. Greater softness equivalents and smaller sucrose SRC values were correlated to larger cookie diameters. Differences in whole grain cookie diameter that could not be predicted by white flour cookie evaluations appear to be attributable to variation in total water extractable arabinoxylan content and the ratio of arabinose to xylose in the non-starch polysaccharide fraction. Early generation selection for whole grain characteristics can use softness equivalent and sucrose SRC measures to estimate the better quality wheat genotypes. Yet, identification of the lines with uniquely superior quality for whole grain flour may require bake tests with the whole grain flour or biochemical analysis of bran.

Technical Abstract: Improved nutrition and reduction in obesity for North American populations require increasing the dietary use of whole grain cereal products. In most snack foods, whole grain products are difficult to manufacture because the presence of bran increases the water absorption and decreases the baking quality of the flour. We use an experimental milling method to evaluate soft wheat for use in cookies. We identified both simple selection tools to identify the best wheat cultivars for whole wheat flour and biochemical factors in the cell wall that explain a large portion of the differences between cultivars for their suitability for use in cookies.