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!