Effect of ascorbic acid on the baking and dough quality of spelt and emmer

Abstract Despite the growing interest in ancient wheats such as spelt and emmer, their utilisation is often limited by inferior dough stability and baking properties. This study evaluated the potential of ascorbic acid to improve dough and baking quality. 60 mg/kg of ascorbic acid to a commercial spelt flour led to higher specific bread volume (+ 7.9%), lower crumb hardness (− 22.9%) and higher cell diameter (+ 17.1%) in the crumb. In emmer, a decrease in dough extensibility (− 29.0%) was observed after the addition of 250 mg/kg ascorbic acid. When adding 60 mg/kg ascorbic acid to 24 spelt flours (eight lines from three different locations), we found improvements in specific bread volume (+ 11.0%), crumb hardness (− 20.2%), and maximal dough force (+ 61.3%). Breads from 25 emmer flours (ten lines from two to three locations) with the addition of 250 mg/kg of ascorbic acid had improved dough strength and cell number (+ 3.0%) in the crumb, and reductions in chewiness (− 10.0%). Further, we found a correlation between the gliadin-to-glutenin ratio and specific bread volume in emmer and identified the trend that HMW-GS Bx14.1 in emmer was associated with higher specific bread volume and a lower crumb hardness. By adding ascorbic acid and extending fermentation to 100 min, we achieved bread quality with only 1% yeast, comparable to that of 3% yeast formulations fermented for 40 min. These findings demonstrate that line selection, ascorbic acid levels, and fermentation times can overcome the lower dough stability of ancient wheats, offering a promising approach to producing high-quality breads.