Baking Precision

[Pam R]

How many times have you heard somebody say "I love to cook, but baking is too hard. You have to be so precise."

Sure, you have to be more precise than when you're making a pot of soup, but am I the only one that 'loosely' measures? Unless I'm writing a recipe, my vanillla never touches a measuring spoon. Mix up some batter - hmm, a little sticky - I'll just add a little more flour. How much? No idea. 7 oz. of melted chocolate in those brownies? Heck, I have 8. A little rum is good, how bad could a little more be?

Don't get me wrong, there are recipes out there that need all the precision in the world. But when I'm making a batch of cookies, brownies, icing and even some cakes it's often done in a little slapdash manner.

Anybody else throwing caution to the wind - or does it just result in flops?

[miladyinsanity]

Oddly enough, I like to bake precisely because it is so precise. I weigh everything, and it drives me mad when I'm adding stuff to a bowl that already has other ingredients, overshoot a little and can't do anything about it.

[emmalish]

I'm with you on this, Pam. I always hear people saying the same thing – "I love to cook, but baking's too hard, I can't be that precise". But like you, I follow recipes fairly loosely. I never measure the vanilla, and I always wing it on the add-ins like nuts and chocolate, or the flavourings like rum or fruit juices/zests. I measure the main ingredients (flour, eggs, baking powder/soda), but I'll fiddle with them if I think the dough is too moist or dry.

Yes, sometimes I don't get quite the result I was hoping for, but I've never had anything inedible. Actually, just the other day I made some chocolate muffins, and as I was having a last read-through of the recipe before putting them in the pans, I suddenly couldn't remember whether I added 2/3 cup of sugar (2x with a 1/3 cup measure), or just 1/3. I was pretty sure I'd only filled that measuring cup once, but I didn't want to add more and screw the recipe up the other way in case I had measured correctly. So I just let it go. Yup, I'd only put in half the sugar. But they were still edible – just more chocolatey than sweet.

I can never understand how people can NOT bake successfully.

[Pam R]

oooooh. You bring up another good point.

How many times have I been having a conversation or was interrupted and couldn't remember what I had already put in the bowl?

Do you toss everything and start from scratch or hope for the best. (I hope for the best.)

[tsquare]

Imprecise. Add a little of this or that, a little short on this, so what?, halve a recipe that calls for an odd number of eggs - add a half egg, or a whole, maybe just the white?

I also don't like to use multiple bowls when I can just add more ingredients to one.

And I bake things I've never made before when I have company coming.

Few flops.

[K8memphis]

I figure I've done everything wrong at least once (would God it was only once ) so I have added a step where I now measure into a random bowl, then ante up to the baking gods into the mixer bowl. But it's taken me decades to get here. And sometimes I have to re-measure said random bowl contents to see where I'm at. It works! Or I just line up every bowl in the kitchen and fill those with my measured offerings then start combining.

Vanilla? I mean sometimes I have to measure out a quarter cup or something specific like if someone is actually paying me for whatever I'm making but otherwise I can't add it correctly without a squirter on the bottle. Would that be one squirt or two?

Emma, maybe consider baking off one muffin to try to determine in advance if all is well.

[K8memphis]

...I also don't like to use multiple bowls when I can just add more ingredients to one...

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Well truly, the object of the game used to be, he who dirties the least dishes wins. But geez, what's a few extra bowls after all. It's a burden the measuring impaired just have to carry.

Edited May 17, 2007 by K8memphis (log)

[K8memphis]

Here's another thought for mise en place--use a coffee filter for measuring the small stuff into. And I have a lot of measuring cups so I can actually measure out two and a half cups at the same time. Or eight cups in one big hefty measure & that kinda stuff. Or I tare out the scale and put all the measured stuff into it's own container.

Edited May 17, 2007 by K8memphis (log)

[K8memphis]

Sorry, I just can't shut up.

But the big deal is one teensly little change in baking, like stuff you can control, to sift or not to sift, or things you cannot control, how the heat in the oven cycles, or the humidity that day can totally change your results. That's the precision part of baking to me. Trying to get that exact same balance as before. Or using the last batch as a basis to tweak the next batch this way or that.

I love baking. I especially love quantity baking. Biscuits, pastry, cookies, cakes, pies, bread bread bread alll of it!

To me that's where the precision comes in. Getting the same result as last time. It's like a new mad scientist secret formula every time when you are aware of and factor in all the variables. How cold are the eggs, how soft is the butter, old fashioned oats or quick? Oh drat the butter is salted this time, the eggs are medium not large...

Edited May 17, 2007 by K8memphis (log)

[emmalish]

To me that's where the precision comes in. Getting the same result as last time.

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I hear you on that – and I'll be the first to admit that my slapdash approach means that I almost never get the same results twice. But it's always edible and recognizable as what it's supposed to be. What I'm confused by is people who just can't manage to bake anything – anything edible anyway – ever. Or are too afraid to try.

I made this lovely bundt cake from Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours. I brought it to work and one of my coworkers asked for the recipe. A month or so later he made it and brought it in – I don't know what he did wrong (or substituted), but it had such an odd aftertaste. One of our other coworkers commented to me privately that she couldn't believe it was supposed to be the same recipe.

Edited May 17, 2007 by emmalish (log)

[K8memphis]

I don't know. Stuff like that is so easy peasy if you've done it before or if you have someone show you how. I've been baking so long, I inadvertently sabotage my daughter when she's baking. I'll say it's real easy But we've come to realize that my 'real easy' is not exactly her 'real easy'.

This is funny, years ago she was going to 'start baking' so I gave her a choice of what she wanted to learn. I mean she'd made some cookies and cakes previously. So she wanted to do belgian waffles. There's a lot of steps in there, separating & whipping eggs, activating yeast, I can't even remember the formula now. But it took her all day. She didn't pick up the next spatula for ten years Poor thing.

[K8memphis]

And I got her a waffle iron for a wedding gift

[gfron1]

Okay so this may be a bit nuerotic...I measure everything with my ultra precise micro-scale, then I look at it and say, "no - it needs more." So why did I measure in the first place! I think we all eventually get the sense when precision is necessary. I don't mess with my macaron recipes. Genois - I'm a bit less disciplined with. Bars and gloppy food - who cares! In the end its all about licking the spoon.

Speaking of licking the spoon - I never measure vanilla (or honey) because I dont want to have any waste and I am cheap, cheap, cheap!

[Pam R]

To me that's where the precision comes in. Getting the same result as last time.

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I hear you on that – and I'll be the first to admit that my slapdash approach means that I almost never get the same results twice. But it's always edible and recognizable as what it's supposed to be. What I'm confused by is people who just can't manage to bake anything – anything edible anyway – ever. Or are too afraid to try.

I made this lovely bundt cake from Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours. I brought it to work and one of my coworkers asked for the recipe. A month or so later he made it and brought it in – I don't know what he did wrong (or substituted), but it had such an odd aftertaste. One of our other coworkers commented to me privately that she couldn't believe it was supposed to be the same recipe.

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A couple of points. When I bake at work, I measure (though I've still questioned whether or not I added all of the flour . . .and still baked it). But I think it's kind of fun, when I'm doing something at home, to see how it'll work out this time! Always edible, sometimes a little more dense, sometimes a little more moist, but always edible!

Here's the thing. If we all follow the same recipe in a cookbook - and I mean follow it - measuring everything to the best of our abilities and following the recipe to a T - we're still going to have variations. It's the way we interpret and it's the way we go about things (dip and scoop, spoon and pack, sift or not, etc.). On one hand, as a person who does the baking/cooking, I love that. As somebody who writes recipes, it scares me.

Okay so this may be a bit nuerotic...I measure everything with my ultra precise micro-scale, then I look at it and say, "no - it needs more."  So why did I measure in the first place! 

I have no idea why you do it, but I love it! You start off with good intentions . . .

[jumanggy]

Most (if not all) of my friends are from a science background so I always wonder why they wonder I can bake. I tell them, "you can complete a chemistry experiment, you can bake!"

I'm not the most precise person in the world, but since most of the time what I bake is a first-time thing (I don't like repeating), I want to come close and don't adjust. I probably want the final product to come closer to what the author wants than what I want.

Electronic scales are so expensive, so I just have a spring model for measuring solid chocolate roughly. What kills me is when an odd measurement for butter appears, like 5 1/2 tbsp. Then I'd have to use a permanent marker to write down how much butter (2 1/2 tbsp?) is left on the wrapper. Grr!

[K8memphis]

Okay so this may be a bit nuerotic...I measure everything with my ultra precise micro-scale, then I look at it and say, "no - it needs more."  So why did I measure in the first place! 

I have no idea why you do it, but I love it! You start off with good intentions . . .

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I totally love gfron for this certifiably neurotic mental picture. Made me belly laugh too.

If weighing something was a golf swing, 'starts off with good intentions' and follows through with passion.

(I) Effing love baking!

Edited May 18, 2007 by K8memphis (log)

[BarbaraY]

I can never understand how people can NOT bake successfully. 

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Obviously, you never met my mother.

Cakes I am precise with, cookies a little looser, biscuits, just toss it in.

Edited May 18, 2007 by BarbaraY (log)

[paulraphael]

hard to generalize ... some baking requires precision, some is only a little less casual than making soup.

When I'm making something like crepes I don't even measure. I just know the general proportions and what the final consistency should be, and i throw it all in a bowl.

Making brownies or pastry dough I measure, but not in any way that looks like organic chemistry. If I want half a cup of flour, I'll dunk the measuring cup in and eyeball about a half cup. That kind of thing.

But some things (certain cakes, etc.), are a delicate balance. A tiny bit too much or too little leavening, or a slight tweak in the ratio of sugar to fat or fat to flour, and the whole house can come tumbling down. So for recipes like that I break out the digital scale.

Edited May 18, 2007 by paulraphael (log)

[onetoughcookie]

This topic is somewhat of a coin-tosser. Since I bake for clients, I think consistency is

vital, so for that reason, I scale all my cake ingredients. If I do change something, I make notes.

My cakes are all stacked, and structure is key (I believe it was Antonin Careme who said something like Confectionery is the first cousin to architecture.)

BUT, there are plenty of goodies I bake for pleasure, and I know them like the back of my

hand. Brownies, cookies...once you know the basic recipe and how it works, you

can certainly play with the ingredients. I think it's important to know that in baking, for every

action there is a reaction, so if you tinker with one thing, something in the outcome will be

affected. And, that my friends, is called 'recipe testing.'

[tdo-ca]

This thread made me remember the old "dip level pour," technique I abandoned as a teenager...rough measurements and adjustments for me - it's not as it you are going to replace flour with sour cream!

[Lindacakes]

I guess I'll have to speak for those of us who are precise.

I am precise. I take pride in it.

I rarely forget where I am because I create a mise en place in order and follow it. Once in a while while I am measuring cups of flour I forget and I remeasure them.

I don't think dip/level/pour is precise enough. I spoon the flour into the cup, level and pour.

I like this about baking, very much. I don't like it if my results aren't at least close to perfect.

I like washing the dishes, too. I have pretty bowls.

But I don't do this for a living, and if I did, I wouldn't do it the same way.

I've always found the precision extremely relaxing, like yoga.

[dejaq]

thought I would chime in on this one,

mostly I have found it depends on your comfort level. I have found that by becoming more familar with the art of baking, helps you to become less dependent on using scales and weights as a crutch. Ever work in a Greek diner? watch how their bakers work, those guys hammer it out so quick and fast it's blinding. They have done the same things over and over so many times, they don't even follow a recipe.

One more thing, as you become more familar with the craft, at least I have noticed, it feels more like cooking (a dash of this, and a pinch of that) and less like baking, it just depends on how comfy you are.

Mike

[Lindacakes]

I've been doing it for forty years, so I'm pretty comfortable. I LIKE the precision.

[Darcie B]

I've also found that the more I bake the less I measure, especially for small items. I usually weigh the flour and sugar because it's actually easier than dipping, leveling, etc. Depending on what I'm making I will measure the leavening but usually just eyeball it. Same with vanilla, lemon zest, etc. And sometimes you just need to add a little extra flour or liquid to get your consistency right, but that kind of feel only comes with experience.

I have friends to whom I give recipes and usually they say it didn't turn out the same. I would like to be a fly on the wall when they make the stuff because I KNOW they are changing things and just not telling me about it (or perhaps they don't realize just how much they are changing it).

[emmalish]

I have friends to whom I give recipes and usually they say it didn't turn out the same. I would like to be a fly on the wall when they make the stuff because I KNOW they are changing things and just not telling me about it (or perhaps they don't realize just how much they are changing it).

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This is the thing that gets me. Even when I'm being sloppy and not measuring properly, things turn out for me. So just where is it that people who "can't bake" are going wrong? What are they doing? Is it not so much a matter of inaccuracy in measuring as possibly not understanding how important certain ingredients are? Are they getting baking soda confused with baking powder? Are they making substitutions and modifications without understanding how the recipe will be affected?