Effects of different flour blends with varying protein content and quality on dough and crust properties of "etliekmek", a pizza-like traditional food of Turkey.

Etliekmek, which somewhat resembles pizza in terms of crust and toppings, is a widely consumed traditional food in Turkey. It consists of a sheeted dough topped with a mixture of minced meat and some vegetables. In this study, the effects on dough processing and crust properties of etliekmek of five flour blends with varying protein content and quality were investigated. The blends (Blend-1 through Blend-5) consisted respectively of hard-endosperm Bezostaja and soft-endosperm Gerek-79 wheat flours at the ratios of 100:0, 75:25, 50:50, 25:75 and 0:100. In addition to pysicochemical properties of wheats and their flour blends, dough processing and etliekmek crust properties were measured through the instrumental and sensory approaches. It was determined that protein contents and qualities of the blends decreased from Blend-1 through Blend-5. The dough from Blend-1 was judged to be extremely elastic, which resisted to sheeting due to elastic recovery, whereas the dough from Blend-5 was scored to be somewhat weak and easily extensible. The most suitable dough for the processing of etliekmek crust, i.e., optimally elastic and properly extensible dough with appropriate sheetability, seemed to be 50:50 blend of Bezostaja and Gerek-79 flours (Blend-3). Blend-1 yielded etliekmek crust with thick, moist and excessively chewy texture, as opposed to the thinner, drier and rather crunchy crust texture from Blend-5. Based on the dimensional measurements and sensory evaluations, Blend-3 yielded the best etliekmek crust. The results demonstrate that an optimum balance of dough viscosity and elasticity, which are mostly governed by flour protein content and quality, is of vital importance to the production of high-quality etliekmek crust.