Forgot to subtract my pan weight on a batch of bread and it turned out better

I was at a friend’s kitchen in Portland last weekend making sourdough, and I totally blanked on zeroing out the scale with the mixing bowl on it. Ended up adding about 200 extra grams of flour without realizing it until the dough was already proofing. Figured it would be a disaster, a dense brick or something... but the loaves came out super fluffy with a nice open crumb. Now I’m wondering if my old digital scale is just off or if I’ve been under-flouring my bread this whole time. Has anyone else accidentally messed up a measurement and ended up with a better result?

3 comments

3 Comments

xena58215d ago

Wait, did you weigh the flour after it was already mixed into the dough or before you started adding it? Because if you added 200 extra grams of flour and it still came out fluffy, that makes me wonder if your hydration ratio was way off before and you've been accidentally making drier dough this whole time. I've had the opposite happen where I forgot to subtract the bowl weight and ended up with a soupy mess that took forever to bake through. It's honestly kind of freeing to realize baking can be that forgiving, makes you wonder how precise we actually need to be.

max_cooper2115d ago

The 200 extra grams thing was a happy accident actually. I weighed everything separately before mixing so I knew I was off. My typical sourdough recipe calls for 500g flour and 350g water, so 700g flour basically turned it into a 50% hydration dough. It should have been a brick but somehow it was the fluffiest crumb I've ever gotten. I think there's something to the idea that lower hydration forces you to develop the gluten more aggressively during folding, and that extra structure holds gas better. Your point about precision is spot on though. I've watched pro bakers just eyeball everything and still get perfect loaves while I'm over here with a scale and hygrometer. Makes you realize the rules exist for beginners and the rest is just feel.

kai_chen215d ago

Totally agree, I once accidentally doubled the salt in a batch and it was somehow the best bread I ever made.