Baking Experiment Criteria

Profile picture for user Crusty Loafer

So when experimenting wwith recipe variables, what data criterion do you track? In putting together my baking diary, what should I include in order to learn from each bake?

If you use a spreadsheet, you can start a new tab with each tweak and name it with a date. When an ingredient is altered you can identify it with a certain color to denote the deviation. 

Some sort of organization of s necessary, because things can get convoluted in a hurry.

My memory is terrible, so I live by “systems”. I have a system for everything. It is not unusual on any given day to have 8 alarms on my iPhone :D

My spreadsheets are always printed before a bake. And on the pack side of the sheet containing the spreadsheet there is a lined page printed for notes for that particular bake.


 

Thanks for that. I plan on using either word or excel.  Probably excel. Then saving to a folder on One Drive,  so I can access it anywhere on any device.  I looked at an app, but my experience with apps is that if my phone dies so does any recipes. 

I also seen the newsletter from the  BBGA on formula formatting. Good information there.

I keep a page of physical paper for each bake, with ingedients, measurements, and all actions that I take, along with times.  

I think the only things I'm missing is ambient, ingredient and dough temperatures.  

I use my personal shorthand/abbreviations, then I try to use more proper English when I type it into my TFL blog.

You can see my blog here: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/blog/idaveindy

I add comments to note what went wrong/right, and what to do next time, sort of like "lessons learned."  

I don't upload pictures yet, but I do take them to help me remember.