I have been using an old school food scale my entire life. My Mom had one and when I got married I bought one. It's the kind that you have to calibrate by hand each time you use it. For those of you that have used one you know what that entails. For those of you that haven't let me explain the process a little...
- Put the scale together (it usually comes in 2 separate bulky parts that take up half your cabinet space)
- Line up the arrow with the number 0
- Add pressure to the scale and release
- Try to realign the arrow with the number 0
- Add pressure to the scale and release
- Try to realign the arrow with the number 0
- Add pressure to the scale and release
- Try to realign the arrow with the number 0
- Add pressure to the scale and release
- Try to realign the arrow with the number 0
- Add pressure to the scale and release
- Try to realign the arrow with the number 0
- Repeat this process a billion times until your fairly certain it's accurate
- Place item on scale to be weighed
- Look how many lines over the arrow lands and count about how many ounces that is
- Remove food from scale
- Now scream at the top of your lungs and pull your hair out because it was not accurately calibrated and the arrow no longer lines up with 0
- Repeat steps 2-16
- Repeat steps 17 and 18 if necessary
- Now repeat the process, but with a bowl added to the scale because your next item is a liquid ingredient....
Well, I received one of the most fabulous gifts a few weeks ago. It's a Gurin Touch Digital Professional Scale! I wanted to use it for my meal prep each week. But since I just had a brand new baby girl come into my life 3 short weeks ago I have not meal prepped. So instead, I recruited my brother to teach me how to make a special treat for the Christmas season.
Let me start off by saying that my Brother is AMAZING! He is in culinary school right now. And he is a chef at The Roof Restaurant. It's no ordinary restaurant. It's the type of place you go once in your life. Or at least it'll be somewhere I go only once – and it will be for my 25th anniversary after I have saved up to go there. Ok it's not that expensive. But for me it is. It's $40 per person and that does not include parking, gratuity, or tipping the people that hang up your coat. Not to mention the new outfit, jewelry, shoes, and coat I would have to buy before I could go there. Lol. So, ya my brother is a chef there. He is pretty amazing!
Since it's the week before Christmas we decided to make a dessert. He chose something “easy” to teach me. Sprtiz Cookies. I had never heard of these cookies before. But if they are classified as a cookie then you know that I'm game for sure!
The process was simple. Or at least I can say that now. I have never baked using cake flour before. And I have never had to sift my flour before. If we had been using my old scale then this process would have taken us years. Luckily, we were using my new Gurin digital scale and it only took us like 20 seconds because we could sift the flour as we poured it onto the scale and had no question in regards to the accuracy. Each time we changed ingredients we had to place a different bowl onto the scale and recalibrate the scale. Which took 2 seconds. Here's the process:
- Place bowl on scale
- Press button on scale to zero out machine
- Wait 2 seconds or less
- Add ingredient and scale will automatically read you a digital number of exactly how many ounces you have added. No more guessing!
- Done!
We were baking these delicious morsels at our mother's house which is why we ended up having extra hands and eyes in the process. My Grandparents decided to stop by for a visit, and my Uncle and his family are visiting from Idaho and staying with them this week. It was a full house. A lot of pressure when you're experimenting with a new gadget, new recipe, and new techniques. But it was lot of fun! People came and went during the process because it's a rather small kitchen and not much room to linger while you wait for goodies to eat.
My Grandpa came in and joined us during the hardest part of the process – piping the dough. We used the only icing bag he had, an 8” piping bag. If you've ever worked with frosting then you know that this is way too small and makes everything more difficult. But of course my brother had no problem with it and made it look way too easy.
I had never piped dough before and so mine did not look anything like my brother's designs. My Grandpa had never piped either and he is hard of hearing (he couldn't hear my brother's instructions very well) and cannot see as well either. But he did a beautiful job!
When we brought the cookies out of the oven to cool and I sat down to feed my daughter the kitchen was raided. People came out of nowhere and came all at once. They ate half the batch before I could even taste a crumb of my hard work. And they probably would have eaten them all if I hadn't stopped them. But that's what family is for. Needless to say, everyone loved the cookies! They were a huge hit!
Here's the recipe if you want to make a cookie that's sure to please:
Citrus Spritz Cookies
8 oz. Unsalted butter, softened
4 oz. Granulated sugar
0.21 oz. Grated lemon zest
0.05 oz. Salt
0.15 fl. oz. Vanilla extract
1.6 oz. Egg
10 oz. Cake flour, sifted
Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the grated lemon zest. Add the salt, vanilla extract and egg; beat well.
Add the flour, beating until just blended. The dough should be firm but neither sticky nor stiff.
Press or pipe the dough onto an ungreased sheet pan, using a cookie press or a piping bag fitted with a large star tip.
Optional: We pressed the centers down slightly and added a small amount of peach jelly to the middles.
Bake at 350°F until lightly browned around the edges, approximately 10 minutes.
Transfer to wire racks to cool.
Enjoy with everyone!
If you're still using an old school scale you should definitely upgrade. P.s. the Gurin Touch Professional Digital Scale is cheaper than any good ones at the store. Check it out! It's my new favorite thing!
You can find it on Amazon here: http://www.amazon.com/Gurin-Professional-Digital-Kitchen-Tempered/dp/B00O96ZGSM/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1419464239&sr=8-2&keywords=gurin+scale
I received this product free of charge in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.
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