Good job Cindy. My dream is to have the United States Department of Education teach people the value of weighing for baking and cooking since first grade!

REPLY

Since I've started weighing my ingredients, I've converted all of my recipes from volume to weight. I measure then weigh the ingredient (or look it up in one of my food yield books)and note it on the recipe for future use. I only have to do it once, but it makes preparing or multiplying a recipe fast, accurate and fool proof. No more "oops, how many cups have I measured?" Using a scale also allows me to try more international recipes because my scale has both grams and ounces.

REPLY

I weigh the flour but sift after I weigh it. Is that right? I'd always been taught that sifted flour makes for lighter baked goods.

REPLY

Hate to be "me too", but, ME TOO! Weighing is the bests. I just converted my neighbor who loves to bake. He was complaining that his products are ok, but not consistently ok. I demonstrated with my scale and he is sold. Thanks. BER

REPLY

Rose is the bomb... Rose Levy BeranBomb!!

REPLY

I only started measuring after I read The Cake Bible 2 years ago. It's changed my life. Cakes and quick breads are more consistent due to accurate amounts, and takes no time, less mess and less dishes.

I measure right into my KA mixing bowl on the scale because many of your cakes begin with mixing the dry anyway.

I'm a convert!!!

REPLY

bill, i feel for you and the same way! last week i made mousseline the new way and it worked beautifully, zero curdling at all. if you can assure your meringue and your butter are at the recommended temperature, mixing the both is completely effortless. i made a giant 500gr egg white batch, and i just dumped all the meringue at once onto the butter, and it turned into mousseline magic in no time.

i think refrigerating the meringue for a few minutes, is much quicker and less noisy than letting the mixer whip it till cool!

indeed, italian meringue can be made ahead of time (see cake bible for keeping times), and when you are ready to make mousseline, just add butter.

REPLY

Bill, I've made the mousseline in TCB several times (works every time), never tried the one from RHC, :). Perhaps this should be this year's resolution? ^_*.

REPLY

Rose and Annie, I second the motion- we bakers need more books to include weights, and Rose, you're just the person to get the word out!

Can't wait to see the flour post you and Woody are working on.

REPLY

I had been baking a good 20 years before I found The Cake Bible. Weighing ingredients has changed the way I cook and bake pretty much everything. And...NO ONE RESISTS CHANGE MORE THAN ME. I am still wrestling with the "new mousseline buttercream". Why change when the original is perfect and works for me every time? Perhaps this may be the reason I'm not sleeping well! (Am I a traitor if I stay with the old mousseline method? Must I jump on the bandwagon with the new one? AHHHHHHHHHH!)

REPLY

baking by volume works, but if you really want to fine tune your baking, expanding to the more delicate and wonderful cakes, the weighing in grams is RULE #1.

it isn't just more accurate, it is easier and a lot faster.

REPLY

The hardest thing for human beings, it seems, is change. North Americans are so wedded to cooking and baking in volume. It's the way their mothers and grandmothers before them did it, and it's always worked, hasn't it? Why fix what's broken?

Why? Because it DOESN'T work. Not really. It's only approximate! That's why professional bakers caught on a long time ago, and use weights the way most of the rest of the world does. Another reason - it's so much easier!

Metric, too. Much easier to use. Let's mount that campaign next, okay? Who knows? The truth might finally set a few people free!

Go, Rose!! Go, Rose!!

REPLY

Rose, fabulous! I hope every cook-book publisher in the US watches this wonderful demo.

REPLY