Post- baking drying Siirt tandir bread by microwave oven

Siirt Tandir is popular, traditional and special dried bread with a long shelf life comparing with the ordinary in Siirt province, consumed by local people in this region. Traditional Tandır Bread is usually consumed by soaking or adding to soup. Siirt Tandir bread is made in rural areas in the traditional oven which takes 6 to 8 hours to prepare. With different types of oven, it takes 2-3 hour to dry the bread after baking. In this study, drying characteristic of Siirt Tandir bread is investigated by two methods. Microwave drying with different power levels,400 W,500 W,600 W,700 W and regular oven with different temperatures 120 oC,130oC,140oC,150oC used to compare the two methods. The effects of temperature levels in regular oven with different temperatures 120 oC,130oC,140oC,150oC, sample mass on moisture content, and drying time of bread were investigated. Drying bread at 120ºC to remove moisture content from 0.345 g water/g solid to 0.159 g water/g solid needed 115 min but drying bread at 150ºC for reaching moisture content from 0.310 g water/g solid to 0.131 g water/g solid needed 65 minutes.When themicrowave power level 700 Wused, it needed 3 minutes to reach moisture content from 0.330 g water/g solid to 0.184 g water/g solid.If the same MW power level usedwith 25 l/h airflow, it needed 2 minutes to reach moister content from 0.265 g water/g solid to 0.130g water/g solid. Different MW power levels were studied 400 W, 500 W, 600 W,700 W. At the level of 400 W the drying process was too slow and at level of 700 W the process is too fast to control and caused sometimes burned products. As a result, in the MW system 600 W power selected as an optimum power level in the drying process. Drying time of post bakingbread by microwave system that the product can be brought to desired moisture content in a short time like 3-5 minutes and it takes longer time between 1-2 hours with regular oven. It is thought that the short-term heat treatment contributes to the preservation of product quality and to the improvement of productivity.