Bread collapsed, first in years, need to save my marriage

Submitted by jmarchetti on November 18, 2009 - 9:28pm

Bread collapsed, first in years, need to save my marriage

Hi all,

I have been using my bread machine for several years, very good results so far. Then I had the idea to buy a kichen scale and start using it for the recipes, my wife was against, I convinced her by saying that we would have even greater reliability when using the scale. I tried a simple french bread, less ingredients would be better, I thought. Here is the french bread recipe that is in my bread machine book ( I have used it with success for several times ):

Water-1 1/2 cups Sugar- 2 TBL Salt 2 tsp Flour 4 cups Yeast 2 1/4 tsp

Converting water from volume to weight is easy: 355 grams, for the flour, I went to my king arthur package that says: 1 serving is 1/4 cup or 30 grams, so 4 cups would be 4*30*4 or 480 grams.

The bread was obviously too wet and collapsed. What could be wrong ? My wife wants to step back from the scale now. After the fact I calculate the hydration rate: 355/480 = 74% which much higher than the 66% the "the fresh loaf hadbook" tells.

OK, would my bread machine's recipe book be considering people would pack the flour when measuring by volume ? Any other conjecture ?

Another related question about hydration: Other liquids like oil, molasses, honey, should I add their weight when calculating the hydration rate ?

Thanks all for getting this far on my post, I need to save my marriage ;)

Filed under:

Submitted by Floydm on November 18, 2009 - 10:01pm.

Hydration

As we were just discussing the other day, a cup of flour can come in anywhere from 120g to 170g. So be careful using that 30g number.

A dough with 73% hydration is going to be really tough to handle, though it is possible if you fold a lot. If you want more of just a straight up french bread that you can easily handle, I'd go to 500g flour and 310-320g water. You can always add more water the next batch.

Yes, other liquids effect the hydration too, but you usually don't add enough of them to a rustic bread that they make a significant difference, and sandwich type breads typically are much lower hydration.

Good luck!

-Floyd

Submitted by sheffield on November 19, 2009 - 6:22am.

Baker's Percentages

Floyd is correct on the weighing of flour. Measure out the 4 1/2 cups flour as you were doing prior to weighing and see what you get. I'll bet you're closer to 6 cups. If you're going to use the 480 grams (General Mills uses the 30g per 1/4 figure) you'll have to use baker's percentages to figure out how much water to use. At 60% hydration, 480 grams of flour would take about 288g of water. Hope this helps!

Submitted by jmarchetti on November 19, 2009 - 4:12pm.

So maybe my wife is rigth :)

Thanks for the replies, so if I understood rigth, I can't easily convert a recipe that is defined in volume to weight. I need to understand first how a cup of flour was measured by whoever created the recipe.

Of course I can use the hydration rate as a guideline.

Hummm.... I see lots of tries going on here.

Talking about the hydration rate, what is the recommended hydration rate for whole wheat breads ?

Thanks!

Submitted by JeannieTay on November 19, 2009 - 6:59pm.

I am also at a lost with the

I am also at a lost with the conversion from volume to weight so if a recipe is written in volumes, I usually skip it cos I always ended making a mess out of it.

I have searched the internet for conversions and get deferring results.

Submitted by jmarchetti on November 19, 2009 - 9:01pm.

I am also at a lost with the

But mostly of the times the recipes are in volume, not weight. You mentioned you skip recipes in volume, where can I find recipes in weight ?

Thanks,

Submitted by mrfrost on November 20, 2009 - 9:27am.

kingarthur.com gives

kingarthur.com gives many/most of it's recipes by weight. Even when the weights are not listed, you can be pretty sure they are based on the weights listed in their master weights chart: cup of white flour=4.25 oz and a cup of whole wheat = 4 oz. Most of their recipes have been almost foolproof for me.

America's Test Kitchen/Cooks Country often has the weights given in their recipes. Most of their recipes are based on a cup of flour= 5 oz.

Again, very reliabe recipes.

Submitted by althetrainer on November 19, 2009 - 9:25pm.