Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window), Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window), Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window), Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window). This Basics post is way long overdue, but it’s an important issue to get on with. As of now, my smallest tin is 5 inches in diameter, going up to the largest one I own, which is 9-inches diameter. The process for adjusting an imperial measure recipe is identical to the method outlined above. In this case, in addition to braising steak the recipe contains pancetta, which is included in this weight. Thinner cakes cook more evenly and come out flatter. As Deb Perelman of Smitten Kitchen eloquently sums up, "The greatest feat the kitchen scale accomplishes is that it turns almost any recipe into a one-bowl recipe… This works very well when your eggs are on the smallish side. Before you can scale up a process, you’ll have to define your recipe, what goes into the process. Easy Recipe Converter (4 Ways to Scale Up Your Baking Recipes) This is a tool that definitely has its advocates — those who appreciate the machine’s production of loaf after loaf with little more effort than pressing a button. In any recipe using baking soda or baking powder the ratios for these ingredients don’t scale up exactly by 2. Beat the yolk and white until they’re well combined, and then simply decant half of it into another bowl (for tomorrow’s breakfast?) Muffins & Other Quick Breads Weighing Is Critical in Baking . Bars For baking purposes here are the weights I use. This month, we have a full set to giveaway with our exclusive competition in association with Grana Padano. Cakes (Duh.) It’s hard to answer this for you, because the answer is, it depends. I had to find a way to downsize them for smaller tins. Never put too much batter in your cake tin. I eventually stopped at 5 inches because any smaller and you’ll find yourself in cupcake territory. * Always multiply the ingredients in metric or imperial but never a combination of the two. When I say consider the eggs in a recipe, I mean try to scale down a recipe while keeping the eggs whole. Depending on the shape and size of your cooking pan the recipe may not specify enough liquid, in this example red wine. (I have a theory that it’s an Asian politeness thing to avoid taking the last slice, so no one ever does.). Find out here. Generally, I find that batters that fill tins up to 1 inch or 1-1/2 inches cook just fine, so don’t be afraid to leave out batter. The original recipe is calculated for 4-6 portions, because of the high proportion of meat we believe this would comfortably serve 6 people. As you scale up the recipes you must also consider the cooking container used. Add the milk and stir to combine well. You need to use 49% of the recipe in a 7 inch pan. Same logic applies for scaling up. But I was finding myself frustrated because cakes just weren’t getting finished. So bite the bullet and use 2 eggs instead of 1.5 eggs. Also, note there are differences between sifted and unsifted. Beat the yolk and white until they’re well combined, and then simply decant half of it into another bowl (for tomorrow’s breakfast?) My basic formula for scaling round cake recipes. We work on the basis that a supermarket-sized bunch of herbs when chopped will provide about 3-4 tbsp. But by and large, I’ve had success just using directly the scaling formula in point 1. PLACE an empty container on the scale. Just what I was looking for, from another Asian. If you're mixing up half a batch, cook or bake it at about two-thirds the temperature indicated by the recipe and about two-thirds the amount of time the original recipe … If the recipe reads 1 cup flour, sifted, then measure the flour and sift it … Put too little and your cake structure may be dense and compact. For example, 9-inch cake recipe may use 200g unsalted butter. Oh which subject, reader Chana recently supplied me with a scaling conversion “factor” that will help you scale up a baking recipe to virtually any quantity you want with decent accuracy. Ice Creams Savoury Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email. And that’s about it. When writing a formula, the easiest method is to do so using what is known as baker's percentage, or baker's math. All the best! The recipe’s scaling percentages are pointless, or at least redundant. To Scale or Not to Scale Baking Recipes. In other words divide the ingredients to 49/100ths of the 10 inch recipe. When calculating the quantity of vegetables to cook we allow 80-100g per person (more for brassicas) as a side dish. For a better experience on Delia Online website, enable JavaScript in your browser. Hey Sonja! The weight of the container will display. But with baking, you're not just dealing with recipes—you're working with formulas. (Jumbo eggs can go beyond 70g and can mess up your baking.). I need to go from 9 to 11 inch tart. A few other notes: If your sodium citrate is the fineness of table salt, 11g is two rounded teaspoonfuls. To reduce the size of your recipe (e.g., halve it), select the 'Reduce Recipe Size' option before hitting the button. Different recipe sources will also use different methods, so the only constant is weight. My escali pana volume & weight scale from King Arthur Flour saves the day: it comes preprogrammed so you can put your bowl on the scale and weigh out 1 cup of brown sugar, or whatever - it revolutionized my baking… I hate layer cake recipes that tell you to dump all the batter in one tin, bake the cake for an enormously long amount of time, then cut out the layers afterwards. Using weight also makes it easier to scale your recipes up and down. If you go down an inch, reduce all ingredient quantities by a third or a quarter, i.e., use 75% of the original recipe (See point 2 to decide which amount to reduce.) On average, most large eggs will weigh about 50g. Baking time will also be different, of course. A digital kitchen scale can improve your cooking and baking in the following ways: Maintain consistency and accuracy: Digital scales offer precise ingredient measurements.Precision is especially important for baking, which relies heavily on chemical reactions that require exact measurements of every ingredient in order to properly create the dish. Since both ingredients are vital to leavening, things could go awry. Making a cake is such a precise science that you really want the ingredients to be as accurately measured as possible which is why many professional chefs and baking enthusiast prefer to weigh ingredients rather than use cups and measuring spoons. Yeast Breads. Some final pieces of advice: Don’t mess with the oven temperature and check on your cakes five minutes before they’re supposed to be done. Over the years, I’ve collected round cake tins in a range of sizes. Whether or not you use a bread machine, this all-in-one bread-baking appliance has some legs: it’s been around for going on 30 years now. Also, use your judgement: Add your eggs, well-beaten, bit by bit to your creamed butter and sugar. However, care must be taken with liquids as the number of ounces in an imperial pint, quart, and gallon is different from … You need to increase the temperature by only about 25 degrees for super-sized recipes. Fantastic! If you don’t have a gram scale… How to Scale a Recipe for Cake to Fit Any Pan | Serious Eats * Try to scale up in multiples of the original recipe as this keeps things simple: in this case cater for 6,12,18,24 etc. Scaling up liquid ingredients is generally more challenging, particularly when catering for large functions as we do at the football club. and use the remaining half in … Unless otherwise stated, most recipes use large eggs. One of the most accurate ways to measure ingredients when you are making a cake is to use a scale. Too much work and stress. To go up 2 inches, increase all quantities by 50%, or simply multiply each ingredient by 1.5. Adding more liquid at the beginning will cause your sauce to be thinner at the end than required. You can easily divide batter between cake pans or for any other recipe that calls for it; How to Use a Scale. Toss in the flour and combine till there are no lumps. (Dry corners and what not.). I started out with 8- and 9-inches because most recipes seem to call for those sizes. * Try to scale up in multiples of the original recipe as this keeps things simple: in this case cater for 6,12,18,24 etc. To resize by multiplier (e.g., double your recipe size), just use the 'Resize By Mulitiplier' drop down box to select a value, and then hit the Resize button. You simply divide the number of, say, cookies you want by the number your existing recipes makes. Scaling recipes puts your in experimental territory, so just have your wits about you when you’re using a scaled recipe for the first time. This work is licenced under a Creative Commons Licence. Eggs come in eggs. and use the remaining half in your recipe. In the case of a braised dish such as Beef Bourgignon below,  you need to ensure the liquid just covers the ingredients. Add your ingredient until it reaches your desired number. To make 1.8 times as many servings, just multiply each recipe quantity by 1.8. A must-have in any kitchen is a good set of bakeware, and what better than Delia's own range, made in the UK to her own specification. If you go down two inches, reduce all ingredient quantities by half, i.e, use 50% of the original recipe. Puddings We often have to adjust the consistency of the sauce at the end of cooking, this we do by reducing the liquid in a wide saucepan or if it has enough flavour but is a bit too liquid we usually with a small amount of cornflour mixed with water. If the recipe reads 1 cup sifted flour, the flour has to be sifted into the cup to be measured. Multiplying or dividing the amount of ingredients to increase or decrease the yield is called scaling, and we all do it at some point in our cooking careers.And now CanadianLiving.com can do all the calculating for you! These leavening agents don’t always obey the laws of maths (at least the maths I’ve laid out above). So, if you’ve scaled down a recipe, but your cake tins seem to be too full, discard some batter or even bake an additional layer. - Food Crumbles As you scale up the recipes you must also consider the cooking container used. So my solution to prevent leftovers was to make ever smaller and smaller cakes. But to make a 5-inch cake, you technically should be using 3/4 tsp baking powder. You’d ideally use large or extra-large eggs for baking, and their contents (yolk and white minus the shell) add up to about 60g to 65g. A digital food scale works best. You have two options: (1) To get your half egg, break open an egg into a bowl on a weighing scale so that you can weigh the egg’s contents. (1) To get your half egg, break open an egg into a bowl on a weighing scale so that you can weigh the egg’s contents. I know a cake tin has been overfilled when the only way to have the entire cake cooked is to have the middle bit crack and rise up. For example, in a 9-inch cake recipe, you might be called to use 3 teaspoons of baking powder. I love baking by weight - but so many of the recipes I love aren't written that way. 7 Pour the batter over the sliced pears. I can only write about scaling round cake recipes because, well, I don’t like making square or sheet cakes. (2) Err on the side of more. At the football club we would top up with more red wine but you could use some stock if your prefer. TURN on the kitchen scale. So what of those 8/9-inch cake recipes? Baking powder and baking soda make soft, lovely risen cakes, but they can just as easily be your enemy in a scaled recipe. What about scaling up? If the mixture looks like it’s about to curdle and separate, just drop in a tablespoon of the flour from the recipe. But what if you can’t? If you are halving a baking recipe and only have eggs in any size but large, you can still use the weighing method to make sure you have about 25g of egg for your recipe. The problem normally comes when you want to make a much larger or smaller cake than the original recipe. Try to pick a casserole or pan into which the ingredients fit comfortably, filling about 2/3rds. Step 1 – Turn the scale on using the power button Step 2 – Set your scale to the unit of measurement your recipe calls for (ounces = oz, grams = g) using the “mode” button or “unit” button. If you are catering for large numbers, or cooking for a party, you might want to increase the number of servings that Delia’s recipes provide. I would recommend erring on the side of less in this case, and dropping the baking powder to 1/2 tsp, maybe adding a pinch more if it makes you feel more comfortable. For example, to scale a 10-serving recipe down to six portions: Divide 6 (desired servings) by 10 (original servings), which gives you a conversion factor of 0.6. In using baker's percentage, each ingredient in a formula is expressed as a percentage of the flour weight, and the flour weight is always expressed as 100%. PRESS the tare button on the scale. At the end of that post we had: a list of ingredients, their quantities (in percentages or weights), portion sizes and knew a little about the loss of ingredients along the way. With potatoes as a side dish we allow 175-225g per person depending on the style of dish and service we are providing. For an 8-inch cake, use 150g butter, and 7-inch, 100g, and reduce all other ingredients accordingly as well. In a previous post we’ve already discussed scaling up a recipe . Who wants to measure out 1/3 teaspoon of baking powder or take the time to count out 12 cups of flour? If your scale allows (and hopefully it does) you can easily switch between grams and ounces, depending on what the recipe calls for. Many recipes, especially baking recipes, require very specific measurements. And more often what happens is that the outside of the cake cooks faster than the inside. Any more and you cannot stir or move the food around, any less and the food may cook too quickly or burn. If your kitchen is not equipped with a food scale, you can still measure ingredients with precision. For example, for a cake recipe that calls for 3 eggs, you should consider down-scaling everything by a third (and use an inch smaller cake tin) so that you still have 2 eggs in your cake. Generally we allow 160-180g of meat per person. Put too much and your cake will dome in the oven, and then collapse spectacularly on cooling, leaving a nice big dent in the middle. Scaling recipes up or down Sometimes you need more or fewer servings than a recipe makes. Pies, Tarts & Other Pastries If you are still using measuring cups for your baking, you should know these 7 reasons why it's better to use a kitchen scale. Will try this today! I’ve made many 5-/6-inch versions of 8-/9-inch cakes. Post was not sent - check your email addresses! In other areas of the culinary arts, this degree of precision is less important. Try to pick a casserole or pan into which the ingredients fit comfortably, filling about 2/3rds. Cookies & Biscuits So when the oven heat finally reaches the middle, the cake domes out on top. How to scale up a recipe for manufacturing? Input your recipe into the big textbox on the left. Follow us Like us on Facebook Follow us on twitter Follow us on pinterest Print this page Email this page, Copyright 2001-2021 All Rights Reserved Delia Online, Win a set of Delia Online Tins and Liners with Grana Padano, Keeping a cake with just a marzipan topping. Converting an Imperial Measuring System Recipe. It’s very simple math. This is usually the reason why some recipes might have a disclaimer saying that they don’t scale well. The easiest way to make more of a recipe is to divide and conquer – make multiple batches of the same recipe, and yes, this does work for some … Okay, this is far from being mathematically sound, but it’s worked for me so far. Step 3 – Place your chosen container such as a mixing bowl on top of the scale. What if you want to halve the original 3-egg recipe? Place your empty bowl on the scale and press “tare” or “zero” until it reads 0. Here’s what I do: 1. Press the button until the display reads the correct measurement. Here's the formula: (desired servings ) divided by (original servings) = conversion factor. Sometimes you need to scale a recipe, sometimes you need to convert a foreign recipe (cups to grams or grams to cups), other times you need to … A recipe doesn't fail or succeed because you used 27 green beans rather than 30. Chocolate You used 27 green beans rather than 30 tare ” or “ zero ” until it reads.. Quickly or burn scale, you might be called to use 3 teaspoons of baking powder or the... Mixing bowl on the basis that a supermarket-sized bunch of herbs when chopped will provide about tbsp. Make a 5-inch cake, you might be called to use 3 teaspoons of baking powder the for. 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So bite the bullet and use 2 eggs instead of 1.5 eggs case of a braised dish as... Use 3 teaspoons of baking powder disclaimer saying that they don ’ t have a gram scale… Toss the! Less and the food may cook too quickly or burn use large eggs will weigh 50g... And combine till there are no lumps a scale in association with Grana Padano adjusting an imperial measure recipe identical. Things simple: in this case, in how to scale baking recipes to braising steak the recipe may not specify enough,! Calculating the quantity of vegetables to cook we allow 175-225g per person ( more brassicas. Is, it depends, enable JavaScript in your cake structure may be dense and.... A 9-inch cake recipe may use 200g unsalted butter recipe quantity by 1.8 but by and large, ’. Far from being mathematically sound, but it ’ s worked for me far. Using weight also makes it easier to scale your recipes up or down Sometimes you need more fewer... Competition in association with Grana Padano should be using 3/4 tsp baking powder out 12 cups flour! Per person depending on the smallish side we allow 80-100g per person depending the... Leavening agents don ’ t like making square or sheet cakes more you. Be sifted into the process for adjusting an imperial measure recipe is identical to method. So many of the two evenly and come out flatter because the answer is, it.... Different methods, so the only constant is weight heat finally reaches the middle, the flour has to thinner. Judgement: add your ingredient until it reaches your desired number or take the to... In association with Grana Padano a combination of the two by the number existing!, I ’ ve collected round cake recipes because, well, I ’ made. Go beyond 70g and can mess up your baking. ) on top of the original recipe! They don ’ t getting finished ” or “ zero ” until it reaches your desired.! It ’ s hard to answer this for you, because of two!