Breadsticks from ‘Solina’ common wheat (Triticum aestivum) flour: Technological properties of flour and process optimization.

Solina is a common wheat variety cultivated in mountain areas of central Italy (mainly in the Abruzzo region) because it is adapted to sustainable agriculture carried out in marginal areas with cold climates; therefore Solina-based products are of interest for consumers, territorial sustainment, and biodiversity conservation. Even though Solina is locally used for bread-making, due to its unique flavour, the poor gluten quantity and quality of its flours do not permit to produce high quality products. Aim of this study was to evaluate the use of Solina flour to make breadsticks since, usually, low strength flours are used for this type of products. The low bread-making quality of Solina does not permit to use standard process parameters suitable for commercial wheat for its mixing process. Mixing parameters such as mixing speed-rate, oil, and water addition before mixing were thus modulated by using an experimental design in order to optimize the mixing process. The doughs were eventually leavened and baked to obtain breadsticks. Commercial wheat flour used for breadsticks production was used for making breadsticks used as control. Baked breadsticks were analysed for their volume increase after leavening and baking, moisture, colour, texture and sensory properties. Solina breadsticks resulted more friable, crunchy and grain-flavoured than commercial common wheat used for breadsticks production. Moreover, high oil percentages and medium speed-rate were necessary in order to optimize these peculiar characteristics even though oil addition masked the typical grain-flavour of Solina flour. The use of water contents lower than the optimal hydration level enhanced the brown colour and the biscuit-like flavour of breadsticks even if these conditions reduced their crunchiness and friability.. This study confirms that the optimization of process parameters could permit to obtain high quality products even by using flours with low gluten content and quality provided that the qualitative characteristics of prime materials and the final product are known.