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I wish I were better at math...
Or I need a professional size (6 quart +) stand mixer...
I normally make my bread dough by hand, as I like to make a good 6-8 loaves at a time. My dad was nice enough to take the individual bread recipe we use (which makes 2 medium size loaves) and figure out how to convert it to make 4 large loaves and 2 medium loaves.
What I WANT to do, however, is make 6 large loaves (or 8 medium loaves) at once. With my stand mixer doing the mixing and kneading. My back is aching to beat the band after this last batch-- and I used the stand mixer for the majority of it (until the dough got too big for it).
When I do the math to see if my dad did a direct multiplication down the list of ingredients, it doesn't match up with what he came up with (which works as a recipe). He went from cups to pounds of flour and I have no idea if he uses the KAF-standard of 4.5 oz per cup of flour. Plus, how the heck do you figure out how much to increase if you just want to make bigger loaves?!? I have *no* idea what the difference is between ingredients for medium vs. ingredients for large loaves!
Augh. I am not a scientific baker. Anyone here a scientific baker? Maybe you can do the math so that it makes sense and I don't have to figure out how to use a third of an egg? LOL
Me:37 MH:38
TTC since Oct 2011
BFP/Beta#1: 13 6/20/12; Beta#2: 20 6/22/12;
MC/Beta#3: 9 6/27/12 BFP#2/Beta#1: 9/21/12
S/PAIFW
Re: I wish I were better at math...
Ditto! I honestly stopped reading it almost at the end b/c when I need to do conversions I hand the recipes over to DH or use an app on my phone. Which, is kind of sad since I have degrees in both Bio and Chem and they are heavy on math LOL
Nest ate my post
YH is going to be mad that he shoveled the whole driveway and you hurt your back anyway.
I got lost after somehow the recipe went from 2 med loaves to 4 large and 2 medium.
Maybe take each new number and divide by the old number to get the factor each one went up.
Anyway, I am no help other than to say you need to buy a snow blower and a 6 qt mixer.
Good Luck and you can send me any extra bread you end up with!
ROFL at all the replies! Thanks, Ladies! This is why I was cranky this afternoon... well, this and the fact that I hurt my back at the gym this morning.
So I talked to my dad and he used a different ratio of pounds-to-cups for the flour, which is why I was getting all confused. I may have it down, now, but not for this round of bread-baking. It will have to wait until after May.
But I agree-- we need to buy a snow blower and a professional size stand mixer. Amen!
If I made a smaller version of my bread recipe, I could do it easily with my stand mixer. But I don't have time in my schedule right now to bake bread every other week, so I have to do it in big batches. Using the machine actually makes a better rising loaf-- it doesn't overwork the dough and distributes the ingredients more universally.
I use an old James Beard recipe called Country Fair Bread-- it's an egg yeast bread and I substitute roughly a third of the flour with white whole wheat flour. Makes it a little healthier and gives it just a hint of colour (aside from the yellow from the egg).
Are we friends on FB? I can send you the recipe (it'd be a longish post here)...
I can always count on you to make me feel better when [the nest] makes me feel inadequate.
I don't bake my own bread
I shop at wal-mart
I have enjoyed chain restaurant meals
and so has Kimberly!!
I don't bake bread to make anyone feel inadequate. I bake it because I like it, it's cheaper, and it's something that my father and I can bond over and remember his mother by. And baking and sharing bread is a millenia-old tradition that is a beautiful and tasty reminder of the bounty of our land.
I don't care if you bake it by hand, by machine, or buy it at Shaw's. I grew up on homemade bread, so that is the standard by which my palate judges white bread. It's what I'm used to.
And I don't care if you shop at Walmart. I don't post to make you feel bad if you do. I don't stay up nights thinking about where anybody but myself shops. Seriously, give it a rest already...
whoa. I think you took that more harshly than it was intended.
Yes.
I most assuredly did not mean to imply that you, or anyone else, is trying to make anyone feel bad.
I don't feel bad that we are all different. I love your homemade bread dedication, I just don't have that commitment, and appreciate that Kimberly doesn't have it either.
I pulled wal-mart and chain restaurants from national board discussions. I haven't seen any bashing of anyone for doing these things on this board, but I have seen Kimberly defending WM in national discussions and read on MM in the gift card post that she owns several chain restaurant gift cards that she bought from the half-off radio promotions.
giving it a rest now