Weigh vs Meausre

So if you read this bread log (blog, get it?) with any regularity you will know I am a proponent of weighing all ingredients.  This is in the style of commercial recipes which call for exact weights which is contrary to most home recipes which call for exact measures.  The difference between the weight of flour and a measure of flower can be dramatic based on how dense (how aerated) it is.  

The only PROBLEM with weighing ingredients is when your scale runs out of batteries in the middle of a key weighing.  This happens to me occasionally because I use my scale a lot and it runs on small watch batteries that don't last as long as I would like.

When this does happen you have to go with your instincts and add as much flour, yeast, water or salt as you think is correct. This is where being familiar with the texture of your mixed dough comes in useful because you will know if its too wet or too dry.

Now it may be a bit of an optical illusion based on spacing of the loaves, but the loaf in the front of this picture is 50% larger than the loaf behind it... It just so happens that I added about 150 additional grams  of water to it, which means I needed to add about 160 additional grams of flour, overall it came out tasting fine but it was a fun experiment in ratios.

Speaking of ratios I highly recommend this book: Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking.  It highlights the different ratios of flower, water, fat and sugar and how they range in spectrum from bread to cookies to cakes to pancakes and almost everything in-between.

Happy weekend, enjoy some bread!
   -Matt