Temperatures and Measurements
Jan • August 18, 2020
measurements
You will notice that most of our recipes are in grams - this is because the most accurate way of measuring your ingredients for bakers is in grams / kilograms. We have put the gram measurements next to the bakers percentage to make it easier for you as we really want you to enjoy this process of baking bread and not scare you away!
Measuring in cups is less accurate because as you scoop your flour into your cup measure you are compressing the flour, therefore you are actually using more flour than what the recipe calls for and hence your results will not be as they are supposed to be.
Bakers % is based on the flour portion being 100%, which means that everything is measured against the flour. You will see in our recipes
500g flour = 100%
water = 60% (330g)
salt = 1.2% (6g)
yeast = 2% (10g)
Therefore 500g flour bread recipe - to calculate the water required at 60% you do the following
500g x .66 (%) = 330g, therefore you would use 330g water in the recipe.
Tare you scale with your bowl on, and pour the water in until the weight measures 330g; tare it to 0 again and add your 500g flour; tare it again and add the salt, (500g x 0.012 = 6g) and the yeast would be 500g x 0.02 = 10g
Temperature
The temperature of your oven is really important and bread likes it HOT! Below is a guide on calculating tempretures converting them from farenheit to Celcius.
Also doughs like to be warm too - the colder the dough the longer it will take to proof. That is not a bad thing either though, because when doughs proof slowly, such as when you put your sourdough in the fridge overnight to proof, it develops a deeper flavour, but be careful you don't overproof your dough because then you will end up with a wobbly dense mess! - not in-edible really, just chewy heavy and dense -still good straight out the oven with with butter and jam!
Temperature Conversion Chart below will help you get an accurate conversion for your favourite recipes
