the $40 digital scale that made me stop hating my bread loaves

I kept getting dense, flat loaves no matter what I did with my flour measurements. Finally dropped $40 on a decent digital scale at a local kitchen store in Portland and weighed everything for a week. Turns out my scooping method was adding like 20% extra flour every single time, which explains all the hockey pucks. Has anyone else found that switching to weight vs. cups changed their results that much, or is it just me?

2 comments

2 Comments

wyatt5220d ago

I read this piece in Cook's Illustrated a few years back where they tested 20 different home bakers measuring flour the same way and the weights were all over the place, like some folks were getting 110 grams and others were hitting 160 grams for the same cup. Once I saw that, I grabbed a $25 scale off Amazon and my baguettes went from bricks to actually having those airy holes you see in bakery bread. The wildest part was realizing my salt was off too, I was just eyeballing it and my dough was always slightly dead tasting. Now I weigh everything including water and it takes the guesswork out completely, I even weigh my starter now because that thing changes volume depending on the day.

xena_brown5018d ago

...and tbh that 20% extra flour thing hit me hard, because I was the exact opposite. I was so scared of dense bread that I under-measured, and my loaves came out like sad, deflated pancakes. @wyatt52 nailed it with that Cook's Illustrated study, I read the same thing and immediately dug my old food scale out of the back of the cabinet. Now I'm over here weighing even my salt and it's honestly embarrassing how much better my sourdough tastes, like I was just guessing at everything before and my taste buds paid the price. Still can't make a decent baguette though, so maybe I need a bigger scale or a therapist, not sure which.