I don't think weighing things takes the soul out of breadbaking. I've never been the "winging it" sort of baker, though I appreciate folks that are. For me, weighing ingredients seems faster and less tedious than reaching for misc. measuring cups. And, I really like how fast it is to scale recipes up and down depending on my needs--without having odd 5/8 measurements :). I have my favorite recipes in an excel spreadsheet, and I can make 1 or 5 loaves really easily.

As for scale recommendations, I have a salter scale, which works fine....BUT it broke and I received 4 defective replacements from the company before they finally sent me one that works--so I can't really recommend them! I would say go for something that has both grams and ounces (grams are really useful for small salt and yeast measurements) and that goes down to at least one gram and 1/8 ounce increments.

Oh, and as for artistry, there's still room for tweaking even with precise measurements--I adjust hydration and add water/flour to get the right feel of the dough I want, and there's always shaping and slashing to get your artistic flow going!

Even as a former test and measurement engineer, I had the same concern when I started weighing rather than using measuring cups. But I have found that using the scale allows me to make a lot more bread, which itself is fun, and to repeat a recipe exactly when I want to. Besides, the measuring cups are still there when I feel the desire to use them.

As far as which scale to choose, the Cooking for Engineers dude tested and recommended the MyWeigh i5000. I went back and forth a bit between the i5000 and i2500, finally deciding to go with the 5000 (5 kg capacity) so that I could use my larger mixing bowls right on the scale. It has worked out well, although without the 0.5 g precision I still measure the smaller stuff (e.g. yeast) with measuring spoons. The i5000 is one of the better tools I have ever used in my life. I don't have a full set of calibrated masses as the moment, but I have checked it with the lab masses I inherited from my father-in-law and it has been right on at 50, 100, and 500 g. In fact I am not sure if I am testing the scale or those old masses!

sPh

Hi, being very new to bread baking, I didnt have a clue if the consistency of the dough was correct.  As soon as I began learning about percentages on various forums, I wanted to weigh my ingredients so I would have a better idea as to the nature of a "wet" dough vs a dry dough.  I found a great deal on a My Weigh KD7001 at this link http://www.oldwillknottscales.com.  It weighs in kg, mg, oz, lbs, (maybe some others too) and performs a tare function.  Weighing my ingredients and experimenting with various percentages has helped me tremendously.

Regards, wms

Almost all digital scales have this but a Tare button is a necessity so you can zero out the scale with a mixing bowl on it. I use my tare all the time to measure in my AP, and then zero the tare, wheat flour, and zero out the tare.....

I use my KitchenAid mixer bowl on a cheap digital scale I got from Target for around $20 and can move straight from the scale to the mixer without dirtying more than the mixing bowl.

To touch on your second question I don't believe that measuring by weight takes the soul out of baking. It takes the inconsistency out of percentage of ingredients. There is plenty of inconsistency in my baking from the amount of time my poolish sits and whether it is in the refrigerator, on the counter, or kitchen table. Plenty of variables to consider!

:)

 I make all the bread we eat, and have done so for many years, I never weigh any thing, and it comes out well.

 Today I made white bread, I had a cup of milk that I had had a few days, put that into the DLX bowl, added 1 1/2 cups starter, 2 cups water, 1 tablespoon of sugar and 4 cups flour dip and scoop, mixed that well and let it rest about 15 minutes.

 Then added about 1/4 cup soft butter, several more cups flour until the dough was no longer sticky, added 1 1/2 teaspoons salt mixed with the dough hook and scraper  about 6 minutes..... and so on, this gave me  4 loaves at 1 1/4 pound each and one large bun. qahtan  

http://www.curezone.com/conversions.asp

Also, what kind of flour do you mostly use? white, whole wheat?

Here's something from BBA with some sample weights

Whole-wheat flour - 1 cup = 4.5 ounces
Coarse whole-wheat flour - 1 cup = 4.25 ounces
Coarse cornmeal - 1 cup = 6 ounces
Rolled oats - 1 cup = 4 ounces
Table salt - 1 teaspoon = .25 ounces
Kosher salt - 1 3/4 teasoons = .25 ounces
Sea salt - 1 1/2 teaspoons = .25 ounces
Instant yeast - 2 1/4 teaspoons = .25 ounces (may be packaged as rapid-rise or fast-rising)
Active dry yeast - 2 1/2 teaspoons = .25 ounces
Granulated sugar, Baking powder, Baking soda - 2 tablespoons = 1 ounce, 1 cup = 7 ounces
Oil, Butter, Shortening, Milk, Water - 1 cup = 8 ounces
Eggs - 1 large egg = 1.65 ounces (without shell)

Posted on the wrong thread!

Should know better than to try this with a 3 day migraine!

I usually bake about 3-4 times a week from October through March. Much less frequently during spring and summer. For "daily" table bread I usually don't really measure much at all. I have a small jelly jar in which I proof 1tsp yeast, then pour flour into the mixing bowl—I know pretty much how much it should look like in the bowl by now, a few pinches of salt and the proofed yeast. Then I just add water til the consistency is right.

BUT
If I am trying a new recipe, or trying to replicate another type of bread, or scaling up my "daily" to a larger batch size I use a scale. Before I had one, I always used volumentric measure, but I think the scale is both easier and more accurate. And bakers percentages allow for easy adjustment of batch size. For example, the other day I wanted to make a semolina bread, but didn't have as much semolina in-house as the recipe called for. Easy, weigh the semolina, then using percentages, adjust all the other ingredients. Nathan Sanborn dasein668.com