WOOSTER, Ohio - If your
latest batch of chocolate chip
cookies seemed rather tough,
your flour may deserve blame.
Ohio State University scien
tists are analyzing soft wheat
•kernels at the U.S. Department
of Agriculture Soft Wheat
Quality Lab located in Wooster
at the Ohio Agricultural
Research and Development
Center Campus.
Small kernels of soft wheat
are sometimes considered to be
inferior to larger kernels, and
they could also possess inferior
milling and baking qualities -
giving baked goods a harder tex
ture and more dense appear
ance.
USDA scientist Charles
Gaines conducted a study distin
guishing kernel size and kernel
shriveling. Shriveling greatly
decreased the amount of flour
produced during milling. The
shriveled kernels produced flour
that resulted in smaller cookie
diameter and higher alkaline
water retention capacity, both of
which predict how well a wheat
will make various pastry prod-
mma
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Tough Cookies?
acts,
Small, non-shriveled kernels
had slightly better baking quali
ties than larger, non-shriveled
kernels - making the cookies
larger in diameter. Gaines and
other scientist think that sepa
rating small, sound kernels from
small, shriveled kernels will
allow millers to adjust their mill
for the size of kernels being
milled. This will improve flour
yield.
"The texture (softness) of soft
wheat cultivars has critical
influence on milling and baking
quality," Gaines said. "The mea
surement of kernel texture is
often perceived to be influenced
by kernel size; however, distinc
tion is seldom made between the
quality of small, sound wheat
kernels and small, shriveled
kernels."
Gaines and other scientists
measured the effects of small,
medium and large-size kernels
of wheat. They found that the
size of the kernels made little
difference to the quality of the
cookies. It was the shriveled
kernels that had the greatest
effect on the cookies.
10 ft. & 12 ft.
"Shriveling induced changes
in protein content, which affect
ed baking," Gaines said. "As
kernel shriveling increased to
severe, cookie diameter
decreased 8 percent."
The resulting cookie diame
ters of the severely shriveled
grain were unacceptable in the
lab's cultivar testing program.
The result? Substantially
reduced end-use baking poten
tial for soft wheat flour produced
from shriveled kernels.
Gaines feels that removal of
moderate and severely shriveled
kernels will improve both the
milling and baking qualities of
soft red winter wheats.
"Growers may come to realize
that shriveled grain has exceed
ingly reduced value to the miller
and baker," Gaines said. "That
knowledge may mediate the way
farmers handle situations when
they're docked at test weight at
the point of sale. It may also
cause farmers to make an
attempt at better management
during production to avoid
shriveling for their own benefit
and that of the end user."
Gaines said soft wheat flour
quality will be improved every
time shriveled wheat is avoided
in the marketing chain. Flour
made from non-shriveled wheat
will produce softer, lighter, more
tender soft wheat products - like
the cookies, cakes, pretzels, pie
crusts and donuts everyone
loves.
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