Busy day ended with bread

[bill_schubert]

I did a bunch today from taking Zoe to the vet to fixing the ice maker AND making a bread I'd not made before.  It is a seven grain bread that I'd bought the grains for a while back.  Two weirdnesses.  First, the recipe called for three eggs.  And secondly, and this has happened before with this bread book, I measured the flour using the scale as I am want to do now days and the dough came out really wet.  I've used this book for as long as I've been baking and always measure by spooning into the cup measure and leveling off.  Always works.  But now I use my scale for everything and for the second time it kind of weirded out the recipe.  I ended up adding more flour just so I could work it but the final dough was really too wet.  It was like NYT no knead bread.  Jiggly.

The bread is, of course, delicious.  But it is kind of cakey and does not slice very well.

As with nearly all bread, only the baker has a complaint.  I'll do it again measuring the way I've done in the past to see the difference.  Soon as I finish eating these two loaves.

Comments

[maju01.livejournal.com]

The bread looks really good.

We don't own a kitchen scale so I've never weighed ingredients for bread. I always just go by how it looks and feels, and so far it's worked well enough.

[bill-schubert.livejournal.com]

I use the scale for cakes and everything BUT bread. Most of the bread recipes I see have measurements in grams and I use that but if they don't I use the spoon and scrape method. Just got it backwards this time.

[siglinde99.livejournal.com]

It rose nicely, so well done. You remind me that I had meant to wake up my starter yesterday, after having eaten the last of the bread in the house.

[bill-schubert.livejournal.com]

Visions of snoring starter just flashed through my head. 'Wake up!!'

I just had some of this toasted for breakfast. Pretty good. I put cream cheese on it when it needed peach jam. Rookie mistake. I love bread that is basically cereal for breakfast.

[taz-39.livejournal.com]

If the book doesn't give weight in grams or oz, the measurements would not be accurate when weighed instead of measured.
Plus, whole wheat weighs more than AP flour so that would probably throw everything off too.

There is a handy weight-conversion chart over at KAB: https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/learn/ingredient-weight-chart

Weighing is only more accurate when it's...more accurate. lol.

Personally, the thing I love about weighted recipes is that I don't have to use measuring cups or separate out all the ingredients.
I can just dump flour into a bowl until I reach weight, then sugar, yeast, etc, adding as I go. Same with a lot of the liquids.

[bill-schubert.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I've been using the King Arthur chart for a while and used the correct conversion but for some reason this book works better with the scoop and level version.

With cakes and any other recipe that gives me the grams I use measurement. I agree that it is a lot easier.

[taz-39.livejournal.com]

Also it looks great! Makes me think it must have a nutty, rich flavor.