Dough volume calculation
Consider simple dough, flour and water. For simplification we will disregard salt, sugar and any other additives. The question is, how do I guesstimate volume of dough, say, 1000gr of flour and 1000ml of water (consider that water/floor ratio for my theoretical dough is known). I'm well aware that different flours have different properties, for simplification, lets say it is GP or 00 flour, whatever it is called in your country. Is there some property like absorption ratio of flour? If there is one, the rest can be easily calculated.
Example:
Usually I mix water and flour (for theoretical dough, forget leavening agents and particular application, like bread, pasta, whatever) in 7:10 ratio - 700 ml of water with 1000 gr of flour. I want to fill with that dough a pan, lets say, 750 cm^3, how much flour and water I should use to get that volume of dough.
Best Answer
You can make a first-pass estimate of the volume of risen dough by roughly doubling the initial volume -- that's a rule of thumb that's often used for judging whether a dough has proofed enough to bake and/or punch down. Beyond that, there are way too many variables to give a concrete answer here -- the only answer that would be accurate is "it depends".
Bread dough is a living microbe colony. What you describe in your question is essentially an autolysis step -- mix water with flour and let it sit. Even that is going to have different absorption and gluten strand growth effects depending on how long it sits at what temperature. Autolysis is an early step out of dozens in a long process, with variables that include not just hydration and flour quality and protein content, but also particular yeast and lactobacillus strains, temperature during kneading, temperature during proofing, temperature during baking, kneading time, proofing time, pH of dough before and after knead, resting time after mixing before kneading, and probably several other "basic" items I'm skipping here.
And that's ignoring the effects of salt, sugar, oil, and other ingredients.
All of the above have major influence on the final volume, with chaotic effects in terms of the way early variations in process can affect the eventual outcome.
Baking is surprisingly complex biochemistry and physics.
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Quick Answer about "Dough volume calculation"
I calculate the volume of the pan and divide the weight of the ball of dough by the number of cubic inches yielding grams per cubic inch. This will give you a constant ratio that you can use for any pan so the dough will fill out the pan properly.How do you measure the volume of a dough?
Attach a piece of tape to the side (in such as way that you can detach the tape and put it back in the same place\u2014e.g., very top of tape is very top of bowl) Pour in a measured amount of water (say, 2 cups). Mark the level on the tape. Add more water (another two cups). Mark it.How do you calculate volume of bread?
To aid in the comparison of loaves of different weights, the concept of specific volume or volume per unit weight is used. This is done by dividing the volume measured by the weight of the bread sample in grams (cm3/g).How much dough do you put in a pan?
In order to find your dough weight, you're simply going to start off by multiplying the three dimensions of your pan (length x width x height). Using a 13x4x4 pan, you would end up with a volume of 208.How many grams of dough do I need for a loaf pan?
Medium loaf pan (9.25" x 5.25"x 2.75") 800g (this would be considered "standard").How to Calculate Individual Bread Dough Ingredients for a Certain Dough Mass
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