Get your cake layers the same size - every time!

Ever baked a cake into two or more layers and your layers just were not the same size?  One is much taller than another? It's a simple fix... Use your scale!

Distribute your batter as evenly as you can by "eyeballing" it... 

Next - Weigh each pan on your scale 

NOTE:  this only works if your pans are the same size and style

As you can see, my estimation was off by about 3 ounces.  I can redistribute the batter (taking 1.5 ounces out of the heavier one and adding it to the lighter one)

Redistribute your batter accordingly to get the same amount of batter in each pan.  It's not necessary to get them exactly the same weight... these pans are within 1/10th of an ounce... not enough to make an appreciable difference.

VOILA!  Even layers...

Your layers will come out the same height every time!

If you're feeling particularly particular, you can also add the weight of all your ingredients and divide that weight by the number of pans you're baking.... then you can weigh the batter into each pan according to your calculations :)

Happy Weighing!

Make Your Own Biscuit Mix

Homemade Biscuits... Light, fluffy and delicious!

I'll admit it.  Regardless of my knowledge of baking or extensive baking skills, I have always had a weakness for biscuit mix... specifically, Pioneer Biscuit Mix.  It's so quick and easy... with one product I can have biscuits, pancakes or waffles... easy peasy!  I always feel guilty every time I get that lovely blue and golden  box out of the pantry, but gosh-darn-it it is so E A S Y!  Periodically, I've tried to find a good scratch recipe, but always found that easy and simple always won... ergo, the biscuit mix... sigh...

Anyhow, with my recent obsession with Americanizing the classic Victorian sponge cake, I find myself with self-rising flour on-hand at all times. Sooooo, I decided once again to re-visit finding a simple but delicious scratch biscuit recipe.  This time, I searched for one that called for self-rising flour. As I hoped, I found a recipe that only had three ingredients... self-rising flour, shortening, and milk.  Eureka!  This was exactly what I was looking for.  The biscuits were yummy... they were approved by my 7 year old (the toughest test of all)... and I always have the ingredients on hand!

It didn't take long for me to realize that I had stumbled upon my own version of a homemade biscuit mix.   The combined flour and shortening, minus the milk, should basically be a biscuit mix, right?  I decided to take it a step further and use this "biscuit mix" exactly as I had my old favorite, Pioneer Biscuit Mix.  I used the same recipe measurements to make waffles and pancakes.  They... were... awesome!

2 Ingredients for Your Own Biscuit/Baking Mix!

Self Rising Flour found in the baking isle of your grocery store

Vegetable Shortening

The Ratio - 5 to 1

Once I converted the recipe from the traditional "cups" measuring to weight, I discovered something amazingly simple.  The flour to shortening ratio was 5 to 1 for the biscuit mix.  No messy measuring of the shortening (something I have always loathed)....  In this example, I used 10 ounces of self-rising flour and 2 ounces of shortening. (I have since discovered that I can get up to 20 ounces of flour and 4 ounces of shortening in my food processor!  yay!!)

Weigh 10 ounces of self rising flour (don't forget to tare/zero out the scale after you put the bowl on the scale, but before you weigh the flour)

Zero/Tare the scale then add 2 ounces of shortening.

Put the flour and shortening in your food processor and pulse several times.

Your mixture should resemble slightly wet sand.

That's it!  Now you've made your own biscuit mix.  It has such a variety of uses, so don't be afraid to experiment.  

Recipe for Biscuits and Pancakes/Waffles:

BISCUITS:

8 ounces of homemade biscuit mix
*6 ounces of milk (approximate)
*  I find the amount of milk is very subjective, depending on how firm or soft you like your biscuit dough.  A 4 to 3 ratio is a good starting point.  Adjust per your preference.

In a medium sized bowl, combine biscuit mix and milk.  Stir with a fork just until combined.  DON'T over mix your dough or you will have tough biscuits!  Pat out onto a floured surface to 1/2" thick.  Cut with a biscuit cutter and transfer to a greased baking pan.  Bake at 425 until golden brown (15 minutes or so depending on your oven).

Tip!  One ounce of baking mix equals roughly 1 biscuit!

FYI - I get roughly 1 biscuit per ounce of biscuit mix.... (this, of course, depends on how thick you pat your dough out and how big you cut your biscuits).  Notice - this is roughly a 4-3 ratio of biscuit mix to milk.  With this knowledge, you can make as many or as few biscuits as you need!

PANCAKES AND WAFFLES

9 ounces of biscuit mix
12 ounces of milk (by weight or by volume - either way it's the same :)
2 eggs
(for a richer batter, you can add 1/2 ounce of melted butter per egg)

Whisk the ingredients together until you have a smooth batter.  Don't over-mix.  I prefer to mix and let the batter rest for 10 minutes or so before I pour on the griddle.  For pancakes, I use a griddle heated to just under 300 degrees.  I make my pancakes about 4-5" in diameter (that's the way my kids like them!).... I get about 15 pancakes with a full recipe.

For waffles, heat your waffle iron.  Spray with cooking spray and pour the batter into the griddle.  Cook per your waffle iron's instructions.  And... enjoy!

Get Rid of Those Measuring Cups!

BAKING BY WEIGHT VS. TRADITIONAL MEASURING 

WHY IT'S BETTER

• Less Clean Up - when you bake by weight, you don't have numerous measuring cups, spoons, and bowls to clean.  The ingredients go from their original container directly into the bowl you need them in.

• More Accurate  - This is true especially for ingredients like, flour, brown sugar, shortening, peanut butter, etc.  If you reach your measuring cup into a container of flour, rather than scooping the flour into your measuring cup, you are going to have significantly different amounts of flour.  With weight, there is no room for error.  Also... how many times have you been making something that called for several cups of flour and found yourself saying "Wait... was that 3 cups or 4?"  With weight, there isn't the incessant scooping, leveling, and counting of cups.

• It's Easier to Increase or Decrease a Recipe - When a recipe calls for 2-3/4 cups flour, and you want to divide that recipe in half.... well now you have a problem and will most likely do some "guestimating".  It's a lot easier to divide or multiply your quantities when they are in lbs., ounces, or grams.

• More Consistent - When you measure your ingredients by weight, there is no room for subjectivity.  7.5 oz is always 7.5 oz.  No matter how you get that ingredient into the bowl!

• Even Cake Layers - Weight your batter in the cake pans!  This way you can be certain that each pan contains the same amount of batter... even (same height) cake layers and consistent bake time.

• It's Faster! - eliminating the "middle man" of the measuring cup allows you to put together a recipe much faster... and the clean up is faster too!   I also find that it is much easier to remember a recipe by weight than cups.  

WHAT YOU NEED

A Scale....
 When choosing a scale, look for one that goes up to at least 10 or 11 lbs.  As you continually add ingredients, plus the weight of the bowl, some recipes can get pretty hefty!  Also, make sure it can measure pounds and ounces as well as grams.  Having the option of 2 decimal places is also nice.  I use an Escali scale.... it has worked for quite some time and I have not had any problems with it.  The batteries last a really, really long time as well!

Make sure your scale is one  that goes up to at least 11 pounds.  Two decimal places is a definite plus... it should measure ounces, pounds, and grams 

A calculator...

Use a calculator to easily increase or decrease your recipe... use it to calculate total weight if you're making something that needs to be divided into equal portions.

Yep!  That's pretty much it.... So don't be afraid to give it a whirl!  Once you make the adjustment, you'll be hooked... I promise:)  

Happy Baking!

Homemade Granola Bars

I decided to try this homemade granola bar recipe the other day.  It sounded good and pretty simple to make, plus I also had all the ingredients on hand.  I also liked the idea of homemade vs. "store bought" because I knew exactly what was in it.  So, as I always do the first time I bake something, I measured with my measuring cups and weighed the measured ingredients as I went.

Take a look at how the recipe translated from traditional measure to a weighted or scaled measure.

HOMEMADE GRANOLA BARS
Ingredient	Traditional Measure	Weight/Scale Measure
Brown Sugar	1/3 cup	3 oz
Honey	¼ cup	3 oz
Butter	4 TBSP	2 oz
Quick Cooking Oats	2 cups	6 oz
Rice Cereal	1 cup	1 oz
Mini Chocolate Chips	2 TBSP	3 oz
Vanilla	1 tsp	1 tsp

Now here is where it get's interesting.  First of all, isn't it crazy easier to see the relationship/ratios between the ingredients when all things are measured by weight (I know, I know... the vanilla is not a weight measurement, but I do still prefer my teaspoons when measuring small amounts of liquid).

For instance, the original recipe calls for 1/3 cup brown sugar and 1/4 cup honey.  But when I weighed those ingredients, they weighed EXACTLY the same.  I can look at this recipe and see how the ingredients relate to one another in a much more clear and concise way.

Now it's confession time.  I goofed when I was making this recipe.  I was making these really quickly and I read the ingredients wrong.  I actually put in two cups of the rice cereal (which made it 2 oz instead of 1 oz).   When I tasted the final product, I actually liked the additional rice cereal and didn't want to correct that.  However, they were just a bit on the dry side.  

So my solution was to bump up the liquid and sugar just a bit.   It didn't need a lot more, but some. So if I was just looking at the traditional measures... how much, exactly, would I increase the butter, sugar and honey?  It's kind of hard to increase 1/3 of a cup "just a bit".  But when looking at the weights, it was much simpler.   I decided to increase each of those by 1 oz.  So now I was going to use 4 oz of brown sugar,  4 oz of honey, and 3 oz of butter.  

I also tweaked the recipe a bit further and added unsweetened coconut flakes and flax seed meal. Based on the weighted measure of the other ingredients, I decided to add 1 oz of flax seed meal and 1.5 oz of the unsweetened coconut flakes.

They turned out absolutely amazing.  The addition of the flax seed meal gave them a nutty flavor, and the coconut added yet another flavor and texture.  The moisture content was also spot on.... 

So here is the final version of the recipe - weighed measures only, since I'm not really sure how they would translate back into traditional "cups" measuring.  I've also included step by step instructions for making these yummy treats, along with photos.  

Happy Weighing!

               

REVISED GRANOLA BAR RECIPE
Ingredient	Weight/Scale Measure
Brown Sugar	4 oz
Honey	4 oz
Butter	3 oz
Quick Cooking Oats	6 oz
Rice Cereal	2 oz
Unsweetened Coconut	1.5 oz
Flax Seed Meal	1 oz
Mini Chocolate Chips	3 oz
Vanilla	1 tsp

First, weigh your dry ingredients into a large bowl.

Place your bowl on your scale.  Hit the "Tarre" button to zero out the weight on the scale.  Make sure you have your scale set to measure ounces.  Weigh each ingredient one at a time - MAKE SURE YOU HIT THE TARRE BUTTON BETWEEN EACH INGREDIENT!  In the bowl is the oatmeal, rice cereal, coconut and flax seed meal.

Weigh the butter, brown sugar and honey directly into a medium sauce pan.

See the "0.00" on the scale?  That's what it should look like after you hit "Tarre" between each ingredient.  

Cook the butter, sugar and honey on high heat until it starts bubbling.  As soon as it bubbles, reduce the heat to low and cook for two minutes.  It should look like this:

Brown sugar, butter and honey after cooking.

Pour the hot mixture over the dry ingredients and combine until thoroughly moistened.

It should look like this when you're done!  

Spray a 10" square pan with cooking spray and spread the mixture into the pan.  Press into the pan until it's level and somewhat compact.  I used a fondant smoother to press it into the pan, but you could use your hands, a spatula, the back of a spoon.  Whatever you have that's handy and will get the job done.

Sprinkled the pan with the mini-chocolate chips and gently press them into the mixture.  Put the pan in the fridge for a bit to allow the bars to set.

After they've had a chance to cool (you mainly want to make sure the chocolate chips aren't melted).  Run a knife or spatula around the edge of the pan and turn onto a cutting surface. 

I used wax paper to turn them onto.  I cut them into 18 bars, but you can cut them into whatever size works for you.

Enjoy!