Comparative study of different bread baking methods: Combined ohmic – infrared, ohmic – conventional, infrared – conventional, infrared, and conventional heating

Developing bakery techniques is essential to improve the qualitative and quantitative parameters of the bread baking process. In this study, the influence of different baking methods was evaluated on baking kinetics, energy consumption, mechanical properties, volume expansion, and sensory parameters of the bread. The results showed that ohmic-conventional method increased the baking time compared with conventional baking. The baking time of the combined infrared–conventional was 63.0–73.7% lower than the conventional method. The maximum values of specific energy consumption and volume expansion were found in the combined ohmic-conventional method. The specific volume expansion, firmness, and shearing force of the baked samples under infrared-conventional conditions were higher than the infrared and infrared-ohmic conditions. The maximum energy efficiency was obtained using the oven-infrared method. The sensory evaluation indicated that the baked samples in the infrared-conventional method had higher scores of taste and flavor than the other baking methods (p < 0.05). Future studies to optimize the baking parameters on bread quality are recommended for improved results.