This enables us to calculate the ideal temperature for the water used for making dough. The flour from the store, being cool, will absorb heat from the water and reduce its temperature. The water for the mixture should therefore be at a sufficiently high temperature to yield dough at the required temperature.

The equality involved here is:

Mass * Specific heat * Change in temperature = a constant (which applies to the flour, the water and the resulting mixture).

Given the specific heat capacity of flour, if its temperature and mass are known, the temperature for the required mass of water may be calculated (the specific heat of water is 1, so the value can be omitted from the equalities below).

In my experiment I used 357 gm flour @ 14°C and 300 ml water @ 47°C. This gave a mixture @ 35°C.

Applying the equality using S to denote the specific heat of the flour:

357 * S * (35 - 14) = 300 * (47 - 35)

This gives S = 0.48, which is convincingly close to the text book value of 0.45.

I wish to produce dough at 40°C, using 350 gm flour at 14°C and 300 ml water. In the following equality T denotes the required temperature of the water:

350 * 0.48 * (40 - 14) = 300 * (T - 40)

Thus T = (350 * 0.48 * (40 - 14))/300) + 40 = approx. 55°C