Measuring Dough Elasticity

I have been asked to research measurement of elasticity in dough.  We are a bagel manufacturer and struggle with consistency in our products.  As bagels are considered an "artisan" bread, some variations are to be expected, but we still need to meet customer specifications.  We are working on developing a set process and parameters for every step of production.  At the present, an experienced baker grabs a handful of dough from the mixer, kneads and pulls it and determines by how it  feels if more or less mixing time is required.  We would like a simple, quick test that could be done for each mix that would give us more science based data than how the dough feels :giggle:  Does anyone have any suggestions?   

Have your flour supplier run farinographs on every load of flour and have them send the numbers with your COA.

Dear Miss Tammy:

BrianWeber's advice above will give you an idea of the 'quality' of your major component. It may provide enough info to guide you.

For your in-process material, You might try researching a 'rheometer'. Devices to measure product tear strength or elasticity might also work. ThermoFisher, VWR, or most of the other larger lab supply companies should carry them. These tests do not normally take but a few minutes.

You may have to experiment enough to determine the best acceptable range based on the measurement used. Have you contacted any of the major bakery associations? They may have some suggestions...

Keith

hope you have solved this by now

if not yet, you can require your flour supplier to provide extensograph parameters on their coa

extensograph values provide info on stretching properties of dough, resistance to extension, breakdown point, etc

you can do bake  trials and trace batches that produced great bagels and build specifications on extensograph properties