Comment on The various stages of cooking experience

southsamurai@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

• Korhaka@sopuli.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  I do loads of baking and never measure anything. Just keep adding flour or water until the dough passes the vibe check and stick it in the oven.

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  • southsamurai@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Depending on the thing you’re baking, that can work.

    Like, bread? While you need to weigh things if you want consistency between batches, as in reliable, predictable results; you throw yeast into wet flour, it’ll rise and you can bake it. So going by feel totally works as well.

    Where you can’t get away with it automatically is chemically leavened things. You gotta have a minimum proportion of whatever you’re using (baking soda or whatever) to flour, and if you go too high it’ll mess things up as well. But even there, you don’t have to weigh things, you can go by volume. It just comes with the caveat that your cake may be different enough to notice each time.

    Or, with cookies, how shifting proportions of one ingredient changes how they spread, whether they’re crispy or chewy.

    It’s all about precision, not getting something edible

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    • Korhaka@sopuli.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      I don’t even use yeast, sourdough.

      Pizza bases quite commonly. Not really sure what to call other things I often make. Similar to bannocks I suppose.

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      • southsamurai@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        I mean, sourdough is the yeast. It’s just got other things as well :)

        Pizza dough is super forgiving! In a pinch, you can use dough you screwed up to make our and it’ll be okay.

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