Pro tip: I quit weighing flour for my sandwich bread and my loaves finally stopped coming out dense
For two years I was that guy with the kitchen scale, leveling off cups and treating every bread recipe like a chemistry exam. My loaves were fine but always a little heavy, and I blamed my cheap oven and my off brand yeast. Then my neighbor Rosa, who has been baking in her tiny apartment kitchen in Queens for like 30 years, watched me scoop flour into a cup and smack it on the counter to level it. She said I was packing it down like brown sugar and to just fluff it with a fork first. That one change got me a loaf that rose higher than anything I had made with the scale, and it cost me zero dollars. The thing is, she never weighs anything, she goes by how the dough feels, and I always thought that was just grandma magic that could not be trusted. Now I fluff, scoop, and level, and my bread has been consistent for about 8 bakes in a row. Is there anything else where ditching the precise method and going by feel actually worked better for you?