Abstract: Wheat gluten is favorable in physical properties, water holding capacity, viscoelasticity and foamability. Besides, it plays a decisive role in the strength, ductility and air holding capacity of dough. Therefore, wheat gluten can be widely used in food, feed, chemistry and paper making industry. However, the large amounts of hydrophobic amino acids, low degree of dissociation and poor dispersion ability of wheat gluten limit its solubility, thus restricting its applications in practical production. In recent years, researches into the efficient and safe methods for the modification of gluten, thus improving the additional value, has become a hot topic at home and abroad. At present, physical, enzymatic, chemical and genetic modification methods have been used, among which physical modification is more favorable in producing fewer toxic chemicals, shorter processing time and fewer effects on nutrition qualities and has been widely recognized and applied in the modification of food protein. Superheated steam is a physical modification method with high thermal efficiency and the advantages of energy saving, environmental protection and convenience in industrial application. In recent years, applications of superheated steam in grain industry have been widely studied. In order to study the modification effect of superheated steam on gluten protein, superheated steam treatment of gluten at different temperatures (140 ℃, 170 ℃ and 200 ℃) and different times (1 min, 3 min, 5 min, 7 and 10 min) were used in this paper. After then, gluten was added into wheat flour with the dosage 2% to study the effects of superheated steam on dough thermal mechanical properties and fermentation rheological properties. Besides, the specific volume, chroma, texture properties and sensory indexes of breads were compared and analyzed. The results are as follows: at the treatment temperatures of 140 ℃ and 170 ℃, the dough stability time increased with the increase of treatment time. When the temperature was 200 ℃, the dough stability time increased firstly and then decreased. At 140 ℃, the maximum fermentation height of dough increased with the increase of processing time. At 170 ℃ to 200 ℃, the maximum fermentation height of dough firstly increased and then decreased. The volume, cohesion and resilience of bread treated with superheated steam under certain conditions increased, hardness and chewiness decreased, and sensory quality was improved. In conclusion, adding gluten protein into wheat flour with proper superheated steam treatments could enhance gluten strength and improve bread baking quality.