Tuesday Treat: Weighed Down!
One of the easiest ways to become a better cook is to stop measuring your ingredients by volume and start measuring them by weight.
To be honest, I’m not a total stickler on weighing because I’m not a professional baker. I don’t weigh stuff like salt or baking powder. I also don’t weigh recipes unless I’m baking because typically having an extra ounce of onions or whatever will still work out in most recipes.
That said, if you want consistency, weighing ingredients (especially stuff like flour) is the only way to go.
Trust me, I want you to be the best baker you can be so I’m giving away THREE of these fancy kitchen scales today.
The Importance of Weighing
A cup of flour weighs close to 4.4 ounces or 125 grams if you’re getting really specific. I’ve done some experiments though and if I just scoop out a cup of flour from the bin, I’ve gotten as much as 6 ounces per cup which can really throw off a recipe. If you’ve ever made a batch of cookies that turned out perfect and then one that turned out dry, it could be because your flour measurements aren’t consistent!
Also, if you ever want to venture into the world of nutrition calculation, you almost always need to weigh your food to get appropriate nutritional information. Weighing the foods is how I calculate the nutritional info for my homemade trials for example.
Win one of these and I would bet your baking gets noticeably better just because of this one tool.
Tuesday Treat Rules
The whole idea behind these giveaways is that they are quick. This contest will close at 8PM PACIFIC time tomorrow (WEDNESDAY) and I’ll pick THREE winners at random.
Unfortunately, I can’t ship overseas so just U.S. or Canada entries please.
How to enter?
I use Punchtab to run these giveaways. The widget below will walk you through how you can enter to win and gain extra entries for doing stuff like following me on Twitter.
If you don’t have Javascript enabled in your browser, you won’t be able to see the widget. You can always just leave a comment below to be entered to win if the widget doesn’t load. The widget will give you more chances to win though.
Winners
Congrats to the winners!
Holly B. (twitter)
Mandy S. (twitter)
Karen (comment)
Gerry @ Foodness Gracious - "I love hitting up the farmers markets for stuff. In fact I actually se..."
Nick - "Thanks for the comment Billy! Glad you like the pizza. :)..."
Anne - "In the Fall (late September/October) they start bringing in Hatch Chil..."
Billy - "Hey Jeff - So you used an all clad pot. Was it made of stainless steel..."
Cookies
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Ooh, I’ve been wanting a scale for a long time now! I could finally be sure my famous oatmeal cookies would come out exactly the same every time!
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I would love to bake some baguettes!
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Brioche
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First thing I’d make is waffles – golden, brown, crispy, with cold butter and warm maple syrup.
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It’s hard to choose what I would bake, maybe some macarons or a kouign-amann. Can I use it as a postal scale? Just kidding….kind of.
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macarons…hands down
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hmm make some pancakes
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I would bake some sort of pastry. Maybe apple turnovers or something like that.
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Would make some cookies. Thanks for the giveaway.
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The first thing I would bake would be gluten-free arrowroot cookies!
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Cookies!!
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I would bake some muffins
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Bread
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I’ve been looking to try out some pastry- maybe eclairs? Thanks!
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Definitely carrot cake. I’ve been wanting to try out adding making carrot cake with mango, and this would be perfect!
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Some whole-wheat bread…I’ve been wanting to for months now.
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Charcuterie
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I’d make cookies!
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A baguette!
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Sourdough!
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I’d bake brownies with this!
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I’ve been wanting to try out sourdough bread and definitely need a scale before I can get started!
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Bread!
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cocoa brownies
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Yes!
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…Bread, Bread, Bread !! …
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I would make bread
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I would just love a kitchen scale like these, it would be very useful for my husband’s special kidney/diabetic diet! Please pick meeee! :)
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I’d bake some layer cakes!
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I love to bake!
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Definitely would bake chocolate chip cookies, carrot cake and other delectable goodies! Would love to win scale!
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Angel Food Cake…
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I would bake chocolate chip cookies!
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Fresh bread -ooh! Ooh! Maybe is even try croissants!!
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Probably pancakes – I love pancakes but I’ve found between myself, my daughter and my husband we never get a consistent texture – probably because of our scooped flour
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I’m baking perfect chocolate cake next.
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I would make some sort of breakfast… probably pancakes!
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I would bake some bread.
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chocolate cake. and then some sort of bread.
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The salted caramel brownies from Smitten Kitchen! I’ve been eyeing them for weeks. Plus I’ve never tired salted caramel (shocking, I know).
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I’m always interested in tools to help me cook/bake better. Thanks for the give away.
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I’ve been on a real cupcake kick lately, I’d definitely have to test the difference!
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As a diabetic I need to weigh more than cookies.
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Home brewed Beer!
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The first thing I’d make with a scale would be a loaf of oatmeal wheat bread!
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bread – have to weigh your flour
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I’d make some triple chocolate cookies for strawberry ice cream-filled sandwiches!
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I would definitely make bread! Thanks for the giveaway!
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I would bake cupcakes
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Probably some sort of bread!
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Craving banana bread lately!
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I’m thinkin macarons.
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A cherry limeade tart! I’ve been wanting to make one for a while now.
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I’m making BLONDIES.
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diabetes brownies
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I have been wanting to make donuts or bagels but I haven’t made either since my totally non-fancy kitchen scale broke down and I tried measuring it out and they were sincerely the heaviest, saddest donuts ever.
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I am starting my own Cake business! Definitely a cake this would be the perfect fit for the new venture!
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I’ve been meaning to try some bread recipes.
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I would bake chocolate bouchons!!
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Great giveaway!
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the best banana bread recipe I can find for my sweetie’s V-day present!
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More bread!
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A scale has been on my need list for quite a while now! I got used to using one at my MIL’s place and found that I used it all the time. Now I don’t know what to do without one!
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I would make some chocolate chip cookies using my grandma’s recipe.
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I would re-try my recent fudge escapades, because YIKES that stuff tasted like straight powdered sugar.
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What a super fancy scale! I think I’d try black gold cookies first–I have trouble with the results coming out the same every time. I’d use it for portion control as well, though. :)
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i wish more recipies used a system of weights for measurements sooo much better that way
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I have used a cheap scale that I have had for a long time when making bread. It does give more consistent results. Thanks for helping us become better cooks Nick!
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I would make peanut butter cookies. Measure how much pb has been taken out of the jar (rather than trying to use a measuring cup) is where it’s at!
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Cookies! I’ve always wanted one of these!
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Nutella brownies!
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I want to bake Brian Malarkey’s condensed milk cake from his cookbook
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I would make a beautiful birthday cake (probably a Devil’s Food Cake) for my husband’s upcoming birthday!
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I would bake gluten free red velvet cake.
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Bread–I’d definitely do bread
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I’ve been wanting a scale! But I don’t do facebook or any of those other cool things, so I’ll have to settle for this one little entry. (fingers crossed…)
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Onion cookies!
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There’s a blondie recipe that’s been calling my name for a while. I’d start with that.
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The first thing I would make using my new scale is a loaf of french bread!
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Ohhh I’ve always wanted one of these! I’m not the best baker, mostly because I don’t measure things exact, so this would hopefully help!
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First thing I would bake…. BREAD! Buttermilk to be specific, since they don’t sell any around me.
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I tend to avoid most baking that requires precision since I am just not a precise measurer/weigher. For that reason, the only baking I do is no knead bread and pasta dough, where you can eyeball it. Maybe having a scale would help me change! I think I’d try something out of my comfort zone…. perhaps a cake from scratch. I’ve never baked one before.
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Apple cider snickerdoodles!
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Either a french loaf or croissants.
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The first thing I would make would be honey wheat bread.
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I do scoop heavy, so I’ve been aware of that and sort of under-filling cups of flour, but a scale would be more useful! It’s not a problem with bread, since I judge the dough by feel anyway, but cookies have occasionally turned out more dry than I’d like.
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Tadas replied: — February 13th, 2013 @ 2:36 pm
Not to put a bee in anyone’s bonnet or anything, but baking bread is more of a science than art in my opinion and I seriously don’t think anyone can actually tell “by feel” is their dough is 70 or 75 % hydration, though the difference in the texture of the finished would be really visible. And I’d love to see anyone judge rye dough by feel alone.
I myself bake quite a lot and measure everything by weight – salt, yeast, baking soda etc. included. Those people who say it doesn’t make a difference mostly just never actually try to measure ingredients by weight thinking that eyeballing it will be fine – and it is, to an extent – but really, just give weighing a shot and you’ll never look back.
Also, go metric. Absolutely no excuse not to.
/rant
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Matt replied: — February 14th, 2013 @ 10:57 am
Bread baking is far from just science, because there’s far more than just water to flour ratios. How active is the yeast? What type of sugar are you using? How long did you knead the dough? By hand, or electric mixer? Was the temperature the exact same as the last time you made bread? Did you let it rise at the same temperature? How long did it take to rise?
etc etc etc
I bake bread a lot by feel. And there’s a reason my bread is artisan, and pouring ingredients into a bread machine leaves a very generic loaf. It just takes practice.
Don’t get me wrong — to an extent, measuring is important, if for nothing else but to be consistent and learn what you’re looking for. Crunchy crust, chewy crumb, more air in the final loaf, etc. Even something as minimal as how much moisture is in your flour can affect the amount of flour you end up using.
Anyway, just a rant on top of a rant :)
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French bread!
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If I won, I would probably make some recipe with weight measurements that I’ve been putting off–like rye bread.
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Some kind of cake for sure. There are several I want to try.
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I would make some sourdough bread!!!
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Bread! I’d first bake bread. All kinds of bread.
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likely bread, but I’d also just start weighing everything immediately, even if I was also measuring by volume.
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I’d be making zucchini chocolate chip bread. No question!
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