Well, I don't have time for an epic response, but one thing you might not be considering here is that professional baking companies use fairly rigid environmental controls, which include humidity and temperature. A large scale production of that sort absolutely has to remove any and all variables that might cause problems.

Also, while you live in an area where there are rather extreme ranges of conditions, there are a lot of people who live where the changes are much more subtle. A slightly over or under hydrated dough is easily remedied by adjusting a few grams here or there. Bottomline is, weighing ingredients doesn't guarantee equal results across the board, but is a base that allows you to adjust for your preferences and then use the same numbers for YOU each time.

Weighing ingredients has several other benefits that get lost in most discussions. It allows for better communication of recipes among bakers, and allows the novice baker to more clearly see how to change a recipe to suit his or her tastes. For me, I've run into quite a few 'volume' recipes where the salt or yeast was way out of whack, and I easily corrected those potential problems. While weighing ingredients might have a few weaknesses, the strengths are proven and unquestionable.

- Keith

I didn't know pros carefully controlled their environments.  Interesting.

I agree on the communication improvement.  I hadn't seen any discussion on the weaknesses associated with weighing ingredients, so I had to ask.

Brian

I guess it also comes down to knowing how to deal with the dough/experience. stuff like knowing what hydration you need, etc.

and everything else made perfect sense to a bakery in town, along with water temps and flour temps and so on, untill they expanded to another location a few miles accross town, here in Western N.Y. Then suddenly, for no apparent reason, their formulas fell apart. This bakery prided itself on consistent product, and they left nothing to chance. They reallly had to scramble to make it happen at the new location. Colder water temperatures and other adjusments were made, and I am not sure what other measures were taken, but bottom line, it fell to some experienced people, and their grasp of how things should feel, before things improved. So weighing is super important at a professsional level of baking, but intuition and experience occasionally saves the day.  Ray

I store my flour in the freezer and I wonder if this is why my doughs seem to come out a bit wet.  I am also in DC, where the summer humidity is fairly high.

I wonder what would happen if you took a pound of flour and put it in the oven at low temps for a while to completely dry it out and see how much weight it lost.  It would be interesting to know how much it changed and whether it was significant.

A good question has been raised here about weighing, humidity and hydration.  I have wondered about this very issue and hope to hear more experienced voices comment on the subject.

Jeff

I imagine that if you could keep the temperature warm, but not too warm, drying in the oven should work very well.  I'd look into how starches and other flour components change with temperature first and make sure you don't exceed a temperature that would change or wreck the flour.

Brian

If one were to refrigerate the flour in paper, not plastic, the flour would dry with time.  Freezers do the same.  I won't guarantee the flour won't pick up refrigerator off tastes. 

One could put packages of humidity absorbers in the flour bin (sealed bin) remove and dry them in winter or when humidity is low, in the sun and return to the flour when needed to absorb moisture.  More investigation is needed here but it might be worth a try.  Or how about cloth packages of food grade charcoal?   Or how about one charcoal bag that fits the bottom of a large flour bin, that way a paper flour bag could just be slippen in on top and covered?  Drying charcoal in the oven should not be a problem.

Mini

the problem with storing flour in the frezzer is when the flour is moved to a warmer enviorment condensation can form within the bag or storage container which will be absorbed in to the flour.

a freas packet of sillica gell (the stuff that comes in some products to absorbe condensation) will help but it must be fresh so it can absorb the max amount possable.

Hi just loafin, Perhaps those were test bakes. I am foggy regarding the details, it was told to me by one of the regular employees, and very long ago. Ray

I think the fact that you have already noticed that there is quite a difference in the hydroscopic nature of flours due to seasonal and climatic conditions you are already there in overcoming any problems that might occur with rigidly sticking to recipes come what may.

Observance and recording variations are all helpfull and can make things more predictable. Water of course is the easiest thing of all to adjust in your formula's, especially if its a matter of adding a little more to the mixing dough rather than trying to take it out once it has been added.

As formulas are based on the flour being 100% it is fairly important to know the flour weight regardles of its moisture content on any given day.

Most of the doughs i put down will say x amount of water + or - and this recognises there is some degree of variance. 

It is a lot easier to work out if some one has a basic out of kilter formula if there is a given weight of flour rather than 3 cups and 2 spoons of something else.

Here in Australia we can end up having weeks on end with the temperature  getting over the 100 degree farenheight or 37 degrees centigrade and it is not uncommon to have to use refrigerated water when mixing, conversely it is currently winter time and we can get down close to freezing  and heated water is used in the mix.

Finished dough temperatures are usually adjusted up or down depending on the ambient temperature that might be in the proving room .

I would be quite careful about heating flour other than bringing it in from a very cold area into a warmer place.    

I think "weighing" the ingredients gives one a more accurate "starting" place for adjusting formulas.  A "cup" measured can vary more than a "cup (4.5 ounce)" weighed.  The authors of artisanal bread books frequently advise adjusting with a little flour or water once the dough is under way. 

Weighing ingredients comes in handy when multiplying a formula to make many loaves from a one or two loaf formula.  ....but then this is also arbitrary.  My experience is when multiplying a recipe by 5x, 10x, or more, the yeast goes crazy....so a decrease in yeast % seems to be normal when increasing formulas.