Sensory crispness of crispy rolls: effect of formulation, storage conditions, and water distribution in the crust

Crispness is an important sensory quality parameter that strongly influences the acceptability of cellular solid foods such as the crust of many types of breads. Crispness of the bread crust depends particularly on its water content. In this study, the relationship between sensory crispness of crispy rolls and the average water content of the crust was studied for different bread formulations (control, amylase, glucose-oxidase, and protease) and storage conditions (40% and 80% RH). From the different formulations used, only protease treatment increased the crispness of the crust and its retention at both storage conditions. The positive effect of the protease treatment was due to a lower water content of the crust of these breads compared to the other formulations. The relationship between sensory attributes, formulation, and storage conditions was found to be dominated by the dependence on storage conditions. When combining data for low and high humidity storage it showed that crusts with equal water contents could exhibit different scores for crispness. The results led to the hypothesis that a gradient of water content exists within the crust. At high humidity, the crust will take up water from both crumb and environment and a relative smaller gradient of water will exist within the crust. At low humidity on the other hand, the crust will take up water from the crumb only, resulting in a larger gradient of water within the crust.