The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Measuring dough

Maudy's picture
Maudy

Measuring dough

As one fairly new to the baking, I have a question. I would like to know how much dough should make a one pound loaf. In addition, can someone recommend a good scale for measuring dough. I want to make mini loafs (I think they are about 1/2 pound)

 

Thanks

maudy

Janetcook's picture
Janetcook

There are many good scales out on the market.  I tried several before settling on an Escali kitchen scale (available on Amazon).  I liked that brand because it measures in grams and ounces and measures each gram and each ounce....Some scales go by 2's - ie 2g then will jump to 4g then 6g.

It also is very thin and fits perfectly into one of my kitchen drawers which was a must for me due to limited counter space.

Here is the link so you can see what I am writing about:

http://www.amazon.com/Escali-P115C-Digital-Multifunctional-Chrome/dp/B0007GAWRS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1310180608&sr=8-1

Mini has left you with a good link to figure out your loaf sizing.

Good Luck!

Janet

quickquiche's picture
quickquiche

I agree with Janet, the scale she provided the link to is a very good scale. I own one myself and am rather happy with it. 

It has several good features. It does measurements in: grams, pounds and ounces, or just ounces. It also has a "tare" feature which allows you to put a container or something on the scale and "zero out" the weight of the item and measure only the ingredients. It also has an auto-off feature to save battery life. You do need to be careful with this though as I think it will turn off the scale if no activity is detected after about two minutes. So you can't really dilly-dally too long when measuring ingredients.

My only unfavorable comment about the scale is on a couple of occasions it has been kind of twitchy with its measurements. For example, if you are measuring out flour and it tells you it has 4.5 ounces, the scale occasionally fluctuates and will then say 4.0 or 5.0. But I've found just by pressing my finger on the scale for a second or so seems to help the scale get back to 4.5. Oh yeah, I think it only measures in increments of tenths. So if you have some recipe that calls for 4.33 ounces or something, you won't get it. You'll only get as close as 4.3 or 4.4

Otherwise its a good scale and has served my needs for about two years now. I would recommend this scale. It works well and its economically priced.

paulm's picture
paulm

If you want to spend a little more, here is a link to a scale with a interesting feature.  In addition to weighing in grams/kilo-grams and ounces/pounds (accuracy to grams and hundreth ounce) with a tare button, it also provides a bakers % mode where you designate one ingredient as the master (flour) and subsequent ingredients show as percentages of the master ingredient.  It is $41.00 but shipping is free.  I've used it pretty steadily for the last 6 months (2-3 times per day) with no troubles what so ever.

http://www.amazon.com/My-Weigh-Digital-Weighing-Scale/dp/B001NE0FU2