Just visited a bakery school in Chicago and I think they're teaching wrong

I went to a pastry program open house last Saturday over on the north side. The instructor kept pushing the idea that you must weigh every single ingredient to the gram for cookies. I've been baking for 15 years and I think that kills the feel for dough. I can tell when my flour is just right by how it looks and feels. Anyone else think we rely too much on scales now and not enough on experience?

2 comments

2 Comments

averywilliams22d ago

My old mentor at the French Pastry School in Chicago would laugh at that guy. We spent a full semester learning to judge dough by touch before they even let us near a scale for certain recipes. I've made thousands of batches of sugar cookies and I still only weigh the butter and sugar, the flour I add by feel until it looks right. Scales are great for consistency when you're scaling up for a bakery but killing the instinct for home bakers seems like a bad move.

terry_jones22d ago

Did you ever have that friend who followed recipes exactly and their cookies always came out like cardboard? I knew a guy who baked by the gram for years until his grandma showed him how to add flour until the dough felt right, and it totally changed his baking. He still uses a scale for new recipes but now he knows when to stop and trust his hands.