In order to decrease wastage of Iranian breads, attempts have been made to improve their quality by using a number of improvers. This study was carried out to determine the effects of two improvers, ascorbic acid in three levels (30, 60 and 90 ppm) and shortening in three levels (0.5, 1 and 1.5 percent) in Sangak bread dough prepared from Back Cross Roshan wheat flour. Back extrusion was carried out over all of the dough samples after 10 and 60 minutes of fermentation using Instron instrument. Puncture test, moisture content and color determination of Sangak breads, which are usually affected during staling, were also monitored after 1, 24 and 48 hours of bread storing at room temperature . Also sensory evaluation was carried out after 1 hour of storage. The result of back extrusion test showed that ascorbic acid increased the resistance of the dough, whereas shortening had the opposite effect. Increasing fermentation time also decreased the resistance of dough in back extrusion test. The result of puncture test showed that 90 ppm ascorbic acid or 1.5 percent of shortening had significant effect to postpone staling, so that the combination of the improvers provide breads with less staling and hardness. The result of color determination showed that ascorbic acid and shortening caused to increase the bread lightness (increasing L index), decrease the intensity of red color (decreasing a index) and the intensity of yellow color (decreasing b index). The moisture content determination showed that ascorbic acid had the significant effect to increase the moisture content of bread. The interrelation of ascorbic acid and shortening showed that by increasing concentration of shortening from 0.5 to 1.5 percent in three levels of ascorbic acid, the water content increased. Organoleptic quality of the breads was evaluated by panelists, and the results showed that those contained ascorbic acid and shortening had higher scores than those of control. According to final scores, there wasn’t significant difference between 60 and 90 ppm ascorbic acid in sensory evaluation, so using 60 ppm ascorbic acid is recommended for improving Sangak bread quality. Application of 0.5 percent of shortening is also recommended for improving Sangak bread quality rather than 1 and 1.5 percent.
