Can anyone explain this?

I increased a recipe for a drop cookie 6-fold by multiplying all ingredients (by weight of course)
by 6. The original recipe requires 1 # 3 oz flour. If the ratio of the formula remains the same, why doesn't this work? It seemed that the butter and possibly sugar ratio to flour was too high, so I'm thinking I'll need to add more flour next time. Should I consider decreasing the sodium bicarbonate in an attempt to lessen

By biretta40 on Thursday, May 04, 2000 - 10:15 pm: Edit

spread, as I'm making about 20 Qts. of dough that is getting warmed while waiting in a warm bakery to be panned out. (I'm thinking that the shortening getting warmed upon sitting in a hot bakery is contributing to spread.) I tried baking at 375 F to lessen spread, but since I'm not working with a convection oven, they are browning too quickly at the edges while the middles remain raw. So I've been baking at 325, which I think would encourage spread--something I don't want. But could this be solved by increasing flour? Also, in regards to my initial question, why doesn't it work when multiplying all ingredients by a constant variable when you're increasing amounts in a recipe?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

carolyn

By biretta40 on Thursday, May 04, 2000 - 10:15 pm: Edit

spread, as I'm making about 20 Qts. of dough that is getting warmed while waiting in a warm bakery to be panned out. (I'm thinking that the shortening getting warmed upon sitting in a hot bakery is contributing to spread.) I tried baking at 375 F to lessen spread, but since I'm not working with a convection oven, they are browning too quickly at the edges while the middles remain raw. So I've been baking at 325, which I think would encourage spread--something I don't want. But could this be solved by increasing flour? Also, in regards to my initial question, why doesn't it work when multiplying all ingredients by a constant variable when you're increasing amounts in a recipe?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

carolyn

By Gerard (Gerard) on Friday, May 05, 2000 - 03:29 am: Edit

Adding flour might affect texture after it cools down, it will prevent spread in the oven but if it puts the formula out of balance who knows what it'll be like tomorrow, probably dry and hard.
My personal solution has always been to find good commercial recipes and use them.
I've never had problems increasing or dividing batch sizes, it shouldn't be an issue, so you probably got something wrong somewhere in the translation from cup to lbs in the first place.

By W.DeBord on Friday, May 05, 2000 - 06:44 am: Edit

My best guess is that you made a mistake somewhere in your conversation. X6 is not such a big number as to have affected anything noticeable. I've never had that happen. I'd bet you used to much fat accidentally.

By d. on Saturday, May 06, 2000 - 05:24 pm: Edit

In your first post you said you are using butter, and in the second one you refer to shortening. Switching these two fats could be causing you problems in spread. But just to be on the safe side double check your quantities in the original recipe.

By biretta40 on Friday, May 12, 2000 - 04:34 am: Edit

Thanks for everyone's responses. d.- I'm actually using both butter and veggie shortening. When I wrote "shortening" I was using the term in the general sense. I did check my calculations in increasing the recipe and they seemed accurate. However, I made the recipe (Xs 6) again the other night, this time decreasing soda and increasing flour--it worked! I am a bit confused, though. DeBord, you said that there shouldn't have been a problem increasing this recipe only 6Xs, butI was told that it would be MOST difficult (requiring much adjustment) to increase a recipe between 4 and 8 times but after that, it is smooth sailing. I guess that was true in this case for whatever reason. Any thoughts?

By Gerard (Gerard) on Friday, May 12, 2000 - 07:05 am: Edit

It doesn't make any difference if you increase batch size. You can increase it by x100, if it works it works at any size.
If you increase the size of the cookie thats a different story, I think this comes from baking larger cakes, not larger cake batches.
Even then, a wedding cake with different sized tiers uses all the same batter, so much for adjusting.
Much confusion when its all straight forward.
Theres some semi pro books going around adding to the confusion, the people writing them have no training and little experience except cranking out more books.
The fat used in the cookies makes a minor difference, we used whatever is on hand and compensate at the oven. Real baking is sooo much simpler than what you might read.

By W.DeBord on Friday, May 12, 2000 - 07:35 am: Edit

biretta40 no way, not so!!!! Exactly as Gerard wrote "if it works it works at any size" 100% true (until you get into REALLY BIG digits), who ever your source is is MISLEADING you!

I multiply recipes all day everyday. I can't even remember the last time I had a problem with a recipe where the problem stemmed from multipling. This is based on the fact that the vast majority of recipes I use are "Homemaker" not pro based recipes (meaning they are small quanitity recipes I increase).

Butter, margerine and shortening all bake a bit different and solidify in your baked product with different texture. If you've done anything to change those factors that can make a difference.

Not all cookbooks contain quality recipes! There are big name cookbooks out there where you can not follow their recipes and have them work or taste good, even if you do everything exactly as written, they fail. What book are you getting your info. from?

By Matt (Matt) on Tuesday, May 16, 2000 - 04:36 pm: Edit

b..40

I use only pro recipeis. However, I use the suzy books for ideas. I find a lot of home recipes don't work and have to tweak them to get them right. One think I do is to break recipes down into baker percentages. When I do that I can better analyze it.

Matt