I wanted a quick reference list for dough ball sizes for common items I bake: breads, rolls, pizza. I haven't found one on TFL, maybe it's here, but no luck yet. So I figured I'd share what I have so far. 

OK, so I made this fantastic banana bread that calls for kosher salt. First time I made it by volume, second time by weighing (first time I was in a rush and didn't want to grab the scale). I think second time was better, but it was better in other ways too.

Someone(s) just asked for the recipe and I want to be clear about the salt in the recipe. I can't assume everyone will go out and buy kosher salt just to make these breads. So, I need to be able to say, "this much kosher salt, or this much table salt". I thought that would be simple enough until I started doing a little searching - all kosher salt is not created equal!

The kosher salt I have is Morton's Course Kosher salt, which now I read, is not as course as most other kosher salts. But I'm also going to to assume, that the Morton Kosher salt is the most common in many homes if people buy kosher salt  because that's what they can get at most grocery stores.

So, I went to Morton's site and their faq says they don't recommend baking with it (lack of practice? experience?) and then they provide comparison charts, one being a one to one volume comparison. See here: http://www.mortonsalt.com/salt_guide/index.html#conversion_chart

According to that chart, when I did the volume measurement of the morton's kosher salt, I put too much (and I do think it tasted salty). Second time, I weighed, they tasted right. So, just now I weighed a tablespoon of my Morton kosher salt (did so three times to be sure I was measuring accurately) and once I got 20 grams, the other two times I got 24 grams. The recipe calls for ELEVEN grams of kosher salt. That means I doubled the intended salt the first time I baked. According to other salt weights I've encountered, 1 tablespoon of table salt equals around 18 grams.

How can my kosher salt weigh that much more than table salt? So then, I weigh my table salt and I measure a tablespoon three times and get 32 grams, 26 grams, 28 grams on three successive tries, so around 28 grams per tablespoon. Is it my scale? (I have an older version of this scale: http://www.amazon.com/Soehnle-65105-Digital-Kitchen-Silver/dp/B000JG4C2W/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1280847660&sr=1-2 ). Could old batteries be throwing things off? (I've had the scale for 4-5 years and never have needed to change the batteries). or are my ingredients "wet"? (we didn't have AC for a month while we were waiting our turn for the technicians to install new) and then the last few days we turned it off as the weather was nice. But that doesn't make sense either - my table salt was in a sealed container.

ACK!!! Now what do I do? And if weighing is more accurate than volume, what does that mean that my weights are off? Is everything off equally? Or, am I messing up proportions?

Melissa

Hello

I am Canadian, and would like to understand ounces.

There are fluid ounces for measuring volume, and avoirdupois ounces for measuring mass

So on this site for example, when recipes are posted in ounces, are all ingredients stated in ounces "ounces by weight" (avoirdupois), unless otherwise specified?

Thanks,

Pietro

I recently bought an oval banneton that is 8-1/2" long, 5-3/8" wide, 3" high from Fantes.  I guess I didn't realize how small it'd be in real life.  What weight dough can be proofed in this banneton?  Since it cost me nearly $20, I'm considering returning it for a larger size.

This weekend I baked 4 French Bread boules (a recipe by Danielle Forestier from a PBS segment with Julia Child). Iv'e always had good success following this recipe, but these loaves were great. They did not collapse during the final proof. I scored them in one stroke rather than my normal hacking several times. The crust was golden, crisp and actually "sang" as I pulled them from the ovens (I had begun to think you guys were all high when you mentioned this could happen). The crumb was perfect, and they tasted great.

I kinda wish I had taken pictures, but you all know what a good loaf looks like. Some of you get those kind of results repeatedly. While I'm still very much a novice, I finally had the courage to follow the advise of some of those of you I consider the superstars (Mini-O, Mike Avery, Floyd, Susan from San Diego, and a bunch of others); I still weighed everything but trusted what I 'felt'.

I held back some of the flour because the hydration seemed just right without it. The kneading time changed a bit to suit the mixer I was using. I let the first rise go a bit longer than called for because the bread was not ready based on conditions in my kitchen. The final proof went a bit longer for the same reason.

It's not like I climbed Mt Everest or anything, but I turned a corner in my baking experiance. I guess that's why a lot of us bake bread. It's a personal sense of satisfaction and accomplishment, and has the added benefit of being able to share the end result with family/friends.

If I ever get a good as a some of you, I hope I am as patent and willing to share as you all have been with many of us that ask the same rookie questions again and again. Thanks for the help! This is a great forum.

Scott (Phxdog).

I am just a little bit dense here and confused at the same time. 

What is the weight of a cup of 100% hydration sourdough starter?  240 grams?  300 grams? 

Please help!

Thanks,

Bill

Without really thinking about the 'why' of it I went out and bought a nice little digital scale to use for my baking. When I went to explain to my 8-yr old DD why we would weigh the flour rather than just measure it in a cup I had to stop. Can someone please explain away this weird thought I have of flour soup??? Imagine if you will, a bag of flour (for sake of argument only) that is 50% water weight. If I put 1 1/3 cups of water in my recipe and 2 pounds of flour just how much flour am I really putting in? If flour is wetter it weighs more so you'd put in less actual flour, right? So what am I doing putting in more water (recipe water + water in the flour)? Wouldn't volume make the results more consistent? OR, is there an inversion that I need to perform...you know...if 2 cups weighs 2 pounds put in 4 cups because 2 cups should only weigh a pound. This has got me so shaken I'm happy to be kneading bread dough. TIA oz

Hi everyone,

I am very new to the way how American amateur bakers measure their ingredients for baking a bread.

As you might have found out I am from Germany (small country in central Europe ;-)
There we also have many amateur bakers.

And because of cold climate farmers grow rye besides a not too good wheat. And that since hundreds of years.

So our bread baking tradition is a rye-bread tradition.
In southern Europe they have wheat breads.