On the other hand, earlier studies (Zobel et al., 1996) have
shown an inverse relationship between bread loaf volume and
firmness, probably because more entanglements and interactions
occurred between the more densely packed polymers in samples
derived from low-volume breads. In a recent study, Tao et al. (2015)
working with same samples showed that bread specific volumes
decreased as the freezing/thawing cycles increased. Therefore,
breadcrumb firmness increment could be related with higher level
of amylopectin retrogradation and with lower crumb density.