My mom finally told me my bread was dry and it stung but helped

She said 'this loaf tastes like it was baked last Tuesday' and I was kinda mad at first but then I realized she was right. I started weighing my flour instead of scooping and adding 2 extra tablespoons of water per cup of flour. The difference was huge, my sandwich bread at home in Portland is actually soft now. Has anyone else had a family member give them harsh but fair baking feedback?

4 comments

4 Comments

grays1313d ago

Isn't it more about personal preference than right or wrong how your bread comes out?

piperbailey12d ago

Bought a kitchen scale a few years back thinking I'd use it for bread, but now I mostly use it to portion out coffee beans... anyway, that's probably why my last batch of sourdough came out looking like a deflated volleyball. My neighbor tried to be nice about it, said it had 'rustic charm.' Then I caught her feeding it to her chickens. Guess personal preference only goes so far when even the birds won't touch it.

jana_shah12d ago

...and that's exactly how my brother put it when he said my ciabatta could double as a doorstop. We were having dinner at his place near Eugene and he didn't even wait for me to offer any, just said "you know that thing you made last week? I used it to prop open the garage door." He wasn't wrong though. I was scooping flour like it was going out of style and wondering why my bread felt like a sponge that had been left in the sun all day. Switched to weighing and adding a bit more water like your mom suggested and now my loaves actually get eaten instead of being passed around like a science experiment.

allen.kai13d ago

Nah, I think there's some objective stuff in bread baking. If you're after a soft sandwich loaf, weighing your flour is a game changer. Scooping can pack way more flour into a cup, which dries everything out. My aunt told me my cookies were 'brick-like' once and it hurt, but she was right too. Sometimes the feedback points to actual technique issues, not just taste differences.