The elasticity of the flour

Let's imagine a dough that must rise, and which is therefore subjected to the action of leavening gases; this will increase in volume, it will literally be inflated, and this increase in volume will reach a breaking point, resulting in the leakage of gas, and the sagging of the dough. The elasticity therefore indicates the maximum extension of this mixture. Let's go back to our dough: the more elastic it is, the more it can increase in volume and size, doubling, tripling or quadrupling the initial volume.

With a very elastic dough, we will have a dough that swells more than a less elastic dough. Elasticity is an important value when we want to obtain a product with a very long leavening.

This elasticity is influenced by W in an inverse way, that is,if the W is greater, therefore the strength of the flour, then the elasticity will be less. So with a low W, for example, W 200, we will have a very high elasticity, with a P / L value below 0.6. To the contrary, if we are talking about flours with W 400, 450, 500 we will have the opposite effect, then a very low elasticity, with a P / L value greater than 1 or at least greater than 0.5; this is because the gluten mesh and the proteins of this flour will be greater and stronger, such as to influence the W in a positive way, increasing the strength, but automatically worsen its elasticity because the toughness of this dough is greater and therefore it will tend to expand less than a flour with a lower W. This is also a value to consider, when evaluating a flour. Above all, if we evaluate it by choosing on the basis of strength, we will automatically have to imagine that that product will be less elastic, and so remedy this problem.

Finally, we need to clarify one thing. Many people misunderstand this value. As said before the value of elasticity is how much the dough expands, but a popular belief has it that elasticity means how much, for example, a pizza can be rolled out before it breaks, but this is actually absolutely wrong.