ORIGINAL PAPER Assessment of Bread Dough Expansion during Fermentation Sylvie Chevallier & Rubén Zúñiga & Alain Le-Bail Received: 29 September 2009 / Accepted: 21 December 2009 / Published online: 26 January 2010 # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2010 Abstract The aim of this work was to investigate different methods of measuring the expansion of bread dough during fermentation and to develop a mathematical model to describe the variation of dough volume. Dough was prepared with wheat flour, salt, yeast, and selected amount of water (56%, 58%, and 60% w/w flour basis). Proving time was 1 h and proving temperature investigated were 25, 30, and 35°C. Dough volume was measured with three methods: (1) vertical expansion in a flask, (2) horizontal expansion between two plates, and (3) free expansion method. Volume was measured either using displacement transducer or from image analysis of pictures taken during expansion. All the methods allowed monitoring the increase in dough volume as a function of proving time. Small differences were observed between the three methods. Free expansion shows a faster start of expansion in comparison with the two other methods. Expansion curves have been fitted with a modified Gompertz model (Romano et al., J Food Eng 83:142–148, 2007). They exhibited three phases: a lag phase, followed by a linear phase (constant expansion rate), and finally a phase with a decreasing expansion rate. Statistical analysis of the set of data showed that the proving temperature had a significant effect on the different parameters calculated (volume expansion ratio, expansion rate), while the water content had no significant effect. Keywords Bread dough . Fermentation . Image analysis . Modeling Introduction Bread dough fermentation is one of the key unit operations in bread making. Yeast metabolizes flour sugars into carbon dioxide gas which diffuses toward the air nuclei embedded in the dough during mixing. The final gas volume of bread can be over 70% of loaf volume, and the size and density of the gas cells can vary, resulting in huge differences in the texture and sensory properties of the final product (Scanlon and Zghal 2001). All stages of the bread-making process can influence the bubble or gas cell size distribution and hence the final crumb structure, as well as the initial dough rheology conferred by the unique three-dimensional protein network created during the mixing step (Bloksma 1990). The assessment of the expansion ratio of the dough during fermentation is an important point, as it is very often used as a criterion to switch to the baking step. Some methods allow estimating the gas production during the fermentation using not only devices such as the Risograph or the Rheofermentometer (Chopin, Tripette & Renaud, France) described by Czuchajowska and Pomeranz (1993) but also “homemade” devices with specific features were developed. For example, Campbell et al. (2001) proposed a method based on weighing small dough samples in air and immersed in xylene using a double-cup system. Gandikota and MacRitchie (2005) presented an instrument for mea- suring the expansion capacity of dough based on the application of a negative pressure in a chamber and the measurement of the height reached by the dough. Others authors tried to evaluate the expansion by measuring the air This study has been carried out with financial support from the Commission of the European Communities, FP6, Thematic Area “Food quality and safety,” FOOD-2006-36302 EU-FRESH BAKE. It does not necessarily reflect its views and in no way anticipates the commission’ s future policy in this area. S. Chevallier (*) : R. Zúñiga : A. Le-Bail GEPEA-UMR CNRS 6144, ONIRIS, BP 82225, 44322 Nantes Cedex 3, France e-mail: sylvie.chevallier@oniris-nantes.fr Food Bioprocess Technol (2012) 5:609–617 DOI 10.1007/s11947-009-0319-3