ratio ingredients example
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ratio ingredients example
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he Basic Ratios: Bread, pie dough, pasta, and pancakes
Even though it’s one of the most basic foods, many of us still struggle with baking bread. But while baking is a more precise affair than other forms of cooking, it’s not as daunting as you may think. These basics will serve you well in almost any case.
Here are a few basic bread and dough ratios that you can put to good use right now:
Bread is generally 5:3, flour to water (plus yeast/baking powder and salt). Almost any bread dough follows this general ratio. You’ll also need to add salt (a pinch is enough for a small batch, but the general rule is about 2% of the weight of the flour) and yeast or baking powder for leavening (1 teaspoon for baking powder for every 5 ounces of flour, or 1 teaspoon of yeast for every 16 oz/1 lb of flour). From there, the sky’s the limit on the flavor or type of bread you want to make. You’re free to add herbs like rosemary or thyme for an herbed bread, or lemon and poppyseeds for a savory quickbread.
Pie Dough is always 3:2:1, flour to fat to water. This one’s pretty universal, barring any of your mom’s secrets for a perfect pie crust, like a using vodka (although really, that one applies too), or working the dough over as little as possible. Just remember to keep your fat as cold as possible.
Pasta is always 3:2, flour to egg. Homemade, fresh pasta is a wonderful thing, but it doesn’t have to be some artisan thing you get at a specialty market. Making your own is as easy as stirring up flour and eggs by hand into a dough and rolling it out. Assume one egg per person when you craft your ratios, and again, weigh everything. 3:2 tells you how much everything should weigh, not how many eggs to use.
Cookies are 3:2:1, flour to fat to sugar. Of course, this will vary a bit depending on the other things you plan to add to your cookies, but basic sugar cookies follow this ratio very closely. If you plan to add a mess of chocolate chips or something else relatively sweet, you may want to scale back on your sugar a little bit. If you plan to add something thick like peanut butter, you may want to pull back a little on the fat. Still, this is a good jumping off point for any cookie recipe.
Pancakes are usually 2:2:1:1/2, flour to liquid to egg to fat (butter). This one’s a little trickier, but you could just mix everything up in this ratio and come out with delicious pancakes. The key here is that the best pancakes require a little sugar (a few teaspoons), maybe a teaspoon of vanilla extract for flavor, a few teaspoons of baking powder to make them fluffy, and so on. You can experiment here, but the key is to understand that simple pancakes are really easy. The liquid you use can be milk or water, it’s up to you, and the fat can be oil or butter (although I’d suggest the latter).
Crepes are always 1:1:1/2, liquid to egg to flour. If you’re ready to take things to the next level, a good (western-style) crepe batter is really simple to make (and much easier than actually cooking the crepes, for which you’ll need a good non-stick griddle). It’s just milk, egg, and flour. You can add aromatics to the batter if you want, like herbs or a dash of ground spice to make your crepe batter stand out.