June 21, 2019 - 3:37pm
Weighing Portion size Question
If you are making Bagels or Rolls and you want them to be 100 grams what is the acceptable range that you would shoot for in dividing up your dough? I'm a home baker and was just wondering how others do this. Yes, I could make them all 100 grams but that would take a lot of time and who would really notice. So is there a general rule of thumb that most people go with? Is it Plus or minus 10%, or 5%?
Thanks for any input,
Dwayne
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The most important point here is that, as a home baker in your own house, it's good enough at exactly the moment you say it's good enough! ?
How are you dividing and measuring your dough? You might find that with practice you do get pretty good at "eyeballing" 100 grams (actually going both by sight and by how heavy it feels), and then - if necessary - nipping off a bit of it or adding some on. But if you're using a method that makes "eyeballing" unnecessarily difficult, then it's frustrating.
how much weight is lost during baking? In other words, if you wanted a 100g finished roll, how much should the dough piece weigh?
How I divide dough for rolls? Bread how I love thee, let me count the ways...
1). I dust my scale and weigh all the dough, divide by the servings I want and then stay plus or minus 2g from that weight. I keep the slightly heavier ones in a group so if the last roll is too light, I can pinch off tiny bits. It is pretty easy to hit the mark every time and any pinched or cut off pieces get stuck (cut to cut) to the next roll. First one is usually off but after a few you get good at eye balling. I make sure to use a heavy hand when adding small pieces so the scale must weigh accurately. I trust my scale more than my bifocals. :)
2). Another way is to flip out the bulked dough, roll out a pizza round, find the middle and divide into pizza pieces (8 or 12 is easier) then roll up the triangles from the wide end and make crescent rolls or after rolling tuck under the ends and shape round. Look Mom, no scales! Viva la difference!
3). On a whim, I,ve been known to flatten dough and roll up a simple log (or two) with abrupt smooth ends. First just a slight mark on the surface in half or thirds and then each section into smaller chunks. Then cut off disks with bench scraper. Works without scales. Naturally with a soft dough this doesn't work so well and better to dust off the scales.
Dwayne, you are the boss. What you say is good enough, is good enough.
And then there are the obsessive nuts like me :-D. I use a pipette when adding water to my dough. I’ll haggle over a gram. Not bragging, just saying...
Blessed are those that are content with “good enough”.
Dan
I try to be precise when adding ingredients, I even work with two scales, one is sensitive to .5 gram the other 1 gram. I always physically weigh my final dough ball, ten divide by what ever number of loaves/;balls I need.
Time factor: You will be surprised at how good you become at scaling the dough balls, in no time at all! With an efficient setup after a few dozen balls you will not be losing much time at all.
Dan - everybody is content with "good enough". It's just that some of them have a reasonable definition for "good enough". The others - well, they have a definition for it all right, but the "reasonable" part is less in evidence. ?
Thanks everyone for your comments. I was just trying to get a feel for how everyone else here does this. I can not rely on me Eyeballing dough amounts as I would be way off on some. : ) This question was directed at weighing dough and not the finished baked item. I guess that your input has now changed my "Good Enough" from Plus or Minus 10% down to Plus or Minus 5%. I'm not ready to make the change to "Dusting My Scale" or getting a Scale that measures down to .5 grams. I got a kick out of those two. Does anyone know how a commercial operation would handle this?
Thanks, Dwayne (Good Enough 2.0)
Commercial operation: slice off a piece, put it on the scale, if it's overweight then cut some off, if it's underweight then stick a bit more on. The only "magic" is that the experienced person can slice off damn close to the right amount on the first try.
David,
Well I would probably not make it in a commercial setting. Thanks, that is the fun thing about baking at home I won't get fired for not being accurate enough or too slow.
Dwayne
Maybe I can get you to version 2.1.0 :D
Not sure if you are familiar with the feel of a dough at different hydrations. I’m guessing not since you are not a stickler for measuring. But 5% makes a huge difference. For example - the difference in feel between a 65% and a 70% hydrated dough is quite different. Digital scales are very inexpensive.
Although, if you are pleased with mixing by intuition then good for you. Many people bake very good bread that way. It all depends on what you want.
Have a blast baking, that’s the important thing...
Danny
Danny,
When weighing out the ingredients I am very careful, especially if I am trying a new recipe. I am a stickler for that, I'm just working on how much of a stickler I need to be for measuring out dough portions. I do have a digital scale and it is one of my best friend in the kitchen. Thanks for your thoughts.
Dwayne
Sorry Dwayne, I did read the entire post when replying.
When it comes to the dough weights, I don’t think it makes a huge difference, unless uniformity is a big concern. If you bake buns for example and some weigh 100g and others vary by 5 or even 10 grams the difference is negligible for most people.
But when weighing ingredients 5 or 10% can make a noticeable difference in the outcome.
90 grams each. Fyi, the .5 Gram sensitivity scale is for yeast and such, not portioning. Same day batch of sourdough burger buns.