Recipe Doubling

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silvercbx

Assistant Cook
Joined
Nov 23, 2014
Messages
1
Location
San Diego
Hi, newbie here (to cooking, too)
Is there anywhere here that tells you how to double a recipe? Or half it? Or 1-1/2 it. I have a very good pancake recipe that needs to be halved again (1-1/2) but feel that just taking 1/2 and adding it to the whole isn't quite right. For instance, I don't think I want to just evenly modify the baking powder. I don't know if there is a fixed formula somewhere or each modification has to be done individually. Or by ingredients........or what?
Thanks for the pointers.
:chef:
 
First of , Welcome to DC. This place has all the answers to any question you could ask.

Chief, yoohoo where are you? A pancake question needs your attention! He will be along shortly, I am sure! :angel:
 
Hi, newbie here (to cooking, too)
Is there anywhere here that tells you how to double a recipe? Or half it? Or 1-1/2 it. I have a very good pancake recipe that needs to be halved again (1-1/2) but feel that just taking 1/2 and adding it to the whole isn't quite right. For instance, I don't think I want to just evenly modify the baking powder. I don't know if there is a fixed formula somewhere or each modification has to be done individually. Or by ingredients........or what?
Thanks for the pointers.
:chef:

Why can't you just multiply? If you mixed the ingredients for a regular recipe then mixed a second identical batch and combined them, they would still be right.

For baking recipes, the key is to keep the relationships between the flour and the other ingredients. So if the sugar is 50% of the flour in the original recipe, it should be 50% of the flour in the increased recipe. Same for the other ingredients.

e.g. 100 gr flour and 50 gr sugar (sugar is 50% of the flour). Increase the flour to 150 gr. and the sugar has to be increased to maintain the 50% relationship - 75 gr.
 
Holy cow Addie.... you act like modifying a pancake recipe is rocket science. You think Chief is the only one around here who knows how to make pancakes? :rolleyes:

Silvercbx, to increase your pancake recipe by 50% just multiply the ingredients by 1.5. So if the original recipe calls for two teaspoons of baking powder, you would add three. If it calls for one egg, obviously there is no such thing as a half an egg. In this instance, I would just add two.

The only place increasing a recipe gets tricky is when it comes to bake times. There you might just have to experiment a little.
 
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Holy cow Addy.... you act like modifying a pancake recipe is rocket science. You think Chief is the only one around here who knows how to make pancakes? :rolleyes:

Silvercbx, to increase your pancake recipe by 50% just multiply the ingredients by 1.5. So if the original recipe calls for two teaspoons of baking powder, you would add three. If it calls for one egg, obviously there is no such thing as a half an egg. In this instance, I would just add two.

The only place increasing a recipe gets tricky is when it comes to bake times. There you might just have to experiment a little.

Steve, I wasn't addressing pancakes specifically. I was addressing the general question of 'doubling' a recipe.

When I need a half egg, I scramble an egg and use half of it.
 
Oops... I wasn't replying to your post, Andy. I was replying to Addie. I think our posts just overlapped.

I am positive that most folks here are quite capable of making fantastic pancakes. But over the years, it seems to me that the Chief is the one everyone turns to when it comes to pancakes. Every person who has tried his recipe raves about it. I am not saying anything against the Chief either. So please don't go to the other end. But let face it Steve. The Chief does take some personal pride in his recipe.

Now to answer the posters question. I for one cannot do math if my life depended on it. I gave up years ago even trying. So when I have a math question, I call up The Pirate. He can look at a column of figures and give you the total before you even have looked at the whole problem. It seems that when it comes to numbers, I was born with dyslexia. :angel:
 
I don't like pancakes. Or math. Especially math.

Thank you. I am not alone. I see or hear numbers and my mind goes blank. And maybe once a year, if someone is making them, I will have one small pancake with just a little butter and a very light sprinkling of sugar. They are total carbs for me. So I leave them alone. :angel:
 
Welcome silvercbx.

Don't let this impress you. Beware, there isn't anyone here who has all the answers, only some who think they do. :wacko:

But a simple question that gets more than five or more responses, will usually cover all aspects of a right answer. Ex. If a person asks "how much salt should I put in the water for boiling potatoes", the responses can run up to three or even more pages. Aside from the correct information given, we often will relate our own experiences of mistakes we have made. A simple question can give cause to many answers. We would not only tell them the right amount, but what constitutes what the wrong amount would be for different amounts of potatoes. :angel:
 
You missed my point Addie.....we may have every possible answer. It doesn't mean that any answer is correct. Maybe one or more is correct, maybe not.
To make yet another blanket statement that "this place has all the answers" is to imply something akin to divine knowledge.
 
Welcome to DC--I'm a bit late to the party. Have you checked out baker's math (baker's percentage)? The math part is that you have to be able to figure out the percentage of the other ingredients against the flour. The flour is always 100% and the other ingredient weights are calculated based on that. My favourite pancake recipe is the one in the 1953 version of the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook (the red and white plaid one with duct tape on the spine--although the duct tape was added much later). It is the cookbook my mom got as a wedding gift and, when it started to fall apart, my dad bought a "new" one at a used book store and gave me my mom's--complete with all the handwritten notes and checkmarks. I had picked up the same book at an estate sale years ago, so now I have two.


I make the buttermilk version but I also add ground cardamom, zested orange peel, cinnamon, nutmeg. I have to admit, I haven't made pancakes for awhile--I cut refined sugar and white flour out of my diet in June 2012 (except for special occasions).
 
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