Over the weekend I made a new recipe from a new cookbook I got recently.
I almost always make some kind of bread when I make soup, and decided that English Muffin Bread would be a good choice. When I looked at the recipe, the first line said "Weigh your flour". I know recipes always advise this but I've stubbornly stuck to dipping a measuring cup in my flour container, leveling it off with a knife, and dumping it into my mixing bowl. But I bought a digital scale back when I knit my Hitch on the Move to weigh my remaining yarn and I keep the scale on top of my microwave. This is right next to my flour container and mixer, so I decided it was time to finally try weighing my flour.
I was a little bit surprised that the 360g the recipe called for was equivalent to only about two and two-thirds cups of flour the way I usually measure it. I didn't weigh any other ingredients but I was very pleasantly surprised at how smooth the batter turned out with minimal mixing.
And the bread turned out beautifully. I think I'll keep weighing my flour, especially because the scale, flour, and mixing bowl are all within a couple of steps of each other.
So the answer to the question I asked in the title is possibly lots of bakers, but now I know, too. You can teach an old dog new tricks!
Hmmm, I've never weighed my flour. Maybe I should start. We both made bread and soup!
ReplyDeleteI know that they are always weighing their ingredients on Bake Off, and I actually wish more cookbooks gave both volume and weight amounts. When I baked cookies on Saturday and wanted to make a half recipe, there were a couple of amounts that didn't divide in half easily, so I had to estimate (like 1.625 cups of flour). I will have to investigate if there are standard weight/volume conversions!
ReplyDeleteEons ago, I took a Craftsy class from Peter Reinhart on baking and he gave lots of insight into the why's of weighing ingredients. It was some of the best advice ever... and I have been weighing ingredients for baking for years now! It makes such a huge difference! Your loaf looks gorgeous! Well done!
ReplyDeletehow interesting!! I do not weigh anything but then again, I try to stay out of the kitchen as much as possible, lol.
ReplyDeleteWhenever I am weighing out my soap ingredients on my scales I wonder if I should get one for the kitchen. Now I know.
ReplyDeleteI had to laugh at your venison recipes. I visited an uncle and nephew yesterday and they were making a pot of venison chili. We had a lot of laughs over people's reaction to deer meat which I get because I don't eat meat. If people ask him if it's deer meat he says no....it's venison and then they nod and say that that's okay and dig in....lol.
I can highly recommend a scale in the kitchen (based on my success after using it once)!
DeleteMy husband was raised on venison, but it's been an acquired taste for me. Both he and my younger son hunt, so our freezers are full of venison and I haven't bought beef for a decade or more. You can exchange venison for beef in most recipes, but I get that it's not for everyone. (Just like meat isn't for everybody!)
I know a lot of UK recipes call for weights rather than measures. I don't think I've ever weighed dry ingredients for baking, but I do often get the scale out for weighing fruits/veg (for tomato sauce, let's say). I've been through a number of scales and remember that the reason I ever got one in the first place was when I joined Weight Watchers... I still remember being SHOCKED at how much a serving of Cheerios was -- WAY MORE than I thought. haha.
ReplyDeleteMy sister is an advocate of weighing flour and like you I've resisted. You may have just convinced me to give it a try. The English Muffin Bread looks wonderful.
ReplyDeleteI started weighing ingredients during the pandemic, when I took an online baking class. It really does make a difference! Tom has always encouraged me to weigh ingredients (because Scientist), but I was just "used to" my measuring implements, and thought it was too big a hassle. Now, I weigh whenever weights are available in a recipe. It hasn't been hard to get used to (once I just made the jump). The type of scale makes a difference, too. (Some are easier to use and read than others.) It's always good to find out that . . . you really can teach an old dog new tricks!
ReplyDeleteSo, tell me more about the cookbook? Dale got a deer this year so we have venison for the first time in quite a while and I'm looking for inspiration!
ReplyDeleteI'm sure that cookbook is nowhere on my radar, but baking with a scale is my new-favorite thing ... it did take some getting used to, and I'm sure my measuring cups are feeling very neglected, but my bakes are much more predictable now. and your bread turned out beautifully!
ReplyDeleteI also started weighing when I was making a ton of sourdough bread. Also surprised by the difference!
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