Impact of Sodium Alginate and Xanthan Gum on the Quality of Steamed Bread Made from Frozen Dough

The impact of freezing on dough rheology, fermentation performance, and final steamed bread quality was investigated in this study. Also, the incorporation of sodium alginate and xanthan gum into the frozen dough formulation, in comparison with 0.1% salt, was studied to test their suitability as frozen dough improvers. Incorporating these hydrocolloids into steamed bread revealed their totally different characteristics from those in baked bread. Freezing of dough led to diminished specific volumes of proofed dough and steamed bread, and it also caused higher crumb firmness for steamed bread. The incorporation of sodium alginate and xanthan gum did not improve the quality of the steamed bread but led to further reduction in specific volume and increase in crumb firmness at the higher levels of 0.3, 0.5, and 1.0% and 0.07 and 0.1%, respectively. Xanthan gum and sodium alginate showed dough strengthening effects by increasing resistance to uniaxial deformation, bubble burst stress, and declining dough weakening coefficients at these levels, but decreased dough extensibility and bubble burst strain were revealed at these concentrations tested.