How to measure a dough humidity?
Different flours have different levels of humidity, or they absorb different amounts of water during mixing. It would be useful to be able to measure the dough humidity to judge the ratio of ingredients and avoid a failed batch.
This is especially useful when variations on the choice of flours are done, so that the "tested" formula does not apply anymore.
Are there cheap tools to do it?
Best Answer
You don't need anything special, just a scale. Put a trivet, then a pan on a scale and tare it. Next, pour in a certain amount of flour, say 100 grams. After that heat the pan and therefore the flour up on the stove, which will evaporate the water, then re-weigh (that's why you have a trivet: you don't melt your scale). The difference between measurements will tell you the humidity of your flour.
I personally don't think there's much to be gained knowing this. Recipes are written accounting for water content in flour, they don't expect flour that's completely dry. I've baked a lot and I've never had a situation where the humidity of the flour has made a noticeable difference, especially when considering other environmental variations.
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How do you measure moisture in dough?
To calculate the hydration level of a conventional recipe, first weigh the flour and water or other liquid. Divide the weight of the water by the weight of the flour and then multiply the result by 100.How do you test the humidity in flour?
In the cereal processing industry, the most commonly applied method for testing moisture in flours involves the use of an air oven (AACCI Approved Method 44\u201315.02). This method determines moisture content as loss in weight of a sample when heated under specified drying conditions.How do you measure relative humidity?
One way to measure relative humidity is to use a sling psychrometer, a device made of two thermometers, One thermometer measures the temperature of the dry air (dry-bulb thermometer) and the other measures the temperature of the air as evaporation occurs (wet-bulb thermometer).Will dough rise if its humid?
Dough fermentation rooms require relative humidity levels of at least 75 percent. Proofers have relative humidity levels of at least 80 percent to prevent skins from forming on the dough during the final proofing stages. In general, with the lower humidity, the crustier bread becomes as it bakes.Top Quality Moisture Measurement for Sheet Dough
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Answer 2
Any flour is going to absorb humidity from the air. The more humid the air the more hydrated the flour. I don't believe two different flours in your home will absorb the humidity differently or will absorb a different amount of water in your mix. Whatever water you put in will be absorbed into whatever flour you use.
Humidity of the air, though, will definitely affect your bakes. If you purchase a hygrometer, which measures humidity in the air, you can keep tabs on your humidity level at different times of the years. These are relatively inexpensive devices. If the humidity is higher you probably need to extend your bake time a bit to compensate. As always, use your senses and tools like a toothpick to measure the doneness of your bake rather than just relying on timing.
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