Converting from Grams to Ounces and confusion!
I left my kitchen scale at a friend's place but I need to make sourdough bread for tomorrow to gift someone. My friend lives far away so I ran to a home supply store and bought a scale from there so I could build the levain tonight. When I got home, I saw the new scale only weighed in ounces and fluid ounces (what the heck??). I facepalmed pretty hard but proceeded to convert my measurements to ounces as accurately as I could. I mixed the levain and decided to mix the autolyse as well. When I combined the flour and water for the autolyse I realized the dough was ridiculously runny. This is an 88% hydration dough and runniness is to be expected, but this resembled a lumpy cake batter. So I added a few tbsps of wholewheat flour and mixed it in. The dough was still looser than it should be but I was afraid of messing up the recipes so I refrained from adding more flour. I'll see how it looks in a few hours after autolyse and how it looks after maybe twenty minutes of kneading (which is what this recipe generally calls for).
Ounces....what's up with those guys?
Would converting from grams to ounces throw a recipe off that drastically? Should I even bother with this one?
thanks!
It's a royal pain doing the conversions (this site is pretty good for helping: http://www.metric-conversions.org/weight/grams-to-ounces.htm), but it shouldn't change the actual recipe / results at all. If you wrote down what you did as conversions, maybe throw both the original and what you used up here and we can double-check it for you.
Honestly, though, if it's a recipe that you've done before, and one where you know how the dough should feel, then I'd suggest that you ignore the scale and start working in some flour as you are kneading until the dough feels "right". You are more than skilled enough to trust what your hands and eyes are telling you, and will turn out a wonderful loaf of bread --- whether it is close to the original recipe or not!
My wild guess is that you ended up somehow using the "fluid ounces" on the scale (I agree - what's up with that?!) and it knocked the measurements totally out of whack. I'd ignore the math and the paperwork and the formula at this point and just go with your wonderful baker's instincts.
Good luck - and trust yourself!
oh man thank you I think deep down I needed someone to give me their blessing on adding a heckton of extra flour by eye. I don't think I used the fluid ounces since the scale switched to pounds when I went over 16 ounces! But here are my measurements:
Levain:
30g starter/ 1.1oz
60g whole wheat / 2.2oz
60g bread flour/ 2.2oz
120g water/ 4.2oz
dough:
800g flour/ 28.2oz
170g wholewheat/ 6oz
30g rye/ 1.1oz
18g salt/ 0.6oz
880g water/ 31oz but on the scale it transferred to pounds and I got a little confused and decided 1.15lb was the proper conversion since 2lb is 32oz?
Basic math shouldn't be this hard but I've never used ounces before and I panicked!! haha :')
All of your conversions from grams to ounces look correct (I went to 2 decimal points, but it rounds off the same).
The ones that might have changed to pounds on you would be:
Flour @ 800g becomes 28.2 ounces becomes 1.76 pounds
Water @ 880g becomes 31.04 ounces becomes 1.94 pounds
So - if you actually put in 1.15 pounds of water (521.63 g), instead of 1.94 pounds (880g), then you should have ended up with a much, much less hydrated dough than usual....
and one thing I found is not translate 18 ounces to 1.13 pounds but rather 1 pound 2 ounces. The way my brain works it seems less confusing.
Gerhard
tare out another bowl, and transfer the autolyse to it, and weigh what is actually in the bowl.
You should have 66.3 ounces (4,14 pounds) in there, with the flour, wholewheat flour, rye, and water (I'm assuming no salt or levain in there yet). If you have less than that, then I'm guessing that the main flour weight was off, and you'd likely be okay to add more up to the 66.3 ounces.
Always a challenge working with unfamiliar tools --- but have confidence in yourself, and have fun with the challenge!
It's feeling a bit better now. Still a little thin but I'll check on it in the morning! I'll also transfer and weigh it in the morning as well since I just finished washing all the dishes and cleaning the countertops haha. Thank you for the tips I will update you tomorrow! I'm gonna try to have fun with it! The funny thing is I'm a bit of a control freak but I try to be more laid back and adventurous ("chill," if you will) outside of the kitchen which means I have to channel all my control issues into my baking so whenever something feels off my brain goes "aaaaaaaaaaaaaaah aaaaah abort abort!!!"
has already mentioned this, but have you looked to see if there is a conversion switch on the scale? Sometimes it is under the battery compartment lid. And if not...
Have fun and trust your senses. You can do it! I know you can. (and think of all the brain cells that are being exercised!)
Go GO go! ... rolled oats are great sucker uppers! toss in a handful or two and a good pinch of salt with each.
Your cheerleader in the jungle,
Mini Oh yes, go for it!
I checked every conversion option available! I frantically pressed the Unit button over and over and then I looked through the manual and saw that the units available are oz, floz, lb, and kg...sigh. I added about 6oz of flour and the dough is starting to feel less suspicious so I think the cheering is working!! :D
They just have a decimal moved over. one kg is 1000g so 0.800 is 800g 0.020kg is 20g 0.001kg is 1g.
Funny is when that button gets accidentally hit and the measurements get weird. I hope that was a good "sigh" and not a sad one.
I had a bit of the same problem recently, when I didn't have anything to weigh ingredients with. The dough was very wet and I ran out of flour, so I put it in the fridge and left it overnight. In the morning I dumped it into a greased casserole dish (of course, you could use a bread pan if you had one!) and baked it anyway. It was lovely and moist. :)
Inquiring minds need to know!
I'm betting on it being just fine ;)
...was hoping to find out before my beauty rest. :)
My last loaf was a funny one... I mixed it up rather late in the evening and it had a good portion of ripe starter, 60% rye flour and added yeast and a shot of cider vinegar to help the rye rise fast. Then I decided to stop about an hour into the rise. Yup...
Put the bowl into the freezer for a few hours and then covered and into the fridge for the night. Next morning took it out in a pile of flour to shape the paste for a banneton. When it started to puff up I flipped it out, slashed and into the hot oven. That cold dough trick helped a lot to stiffen a wet dough.
Thanks everyone! The bread turned out ok but it had zero oven spring. It has small bubbles running throughout so it's not completely dense and it's tastes good (especially since there's orange zest, poppy seeds, and cranberries mixed in)
After right before baking the bread I made the trip to my friend's house and got my original scale back wooo it's like i have my security blanket back in my hand
Baking in a different kitchen can often be disorientating. The air moves differently, so many distractions and the yeast may behave faster or slower. Chalk it up to kitchen draft. It's happened to me too so don't let it degas your spirit. :)