Doubling a Recipe - Guidelines, please
I often double recipes when baking cookies, cakes and breads. Recently I learned you are not supposed to double all of the ingredients across the board. For example, if making banana bread, you would double the flour, yet perhaps add less than double the egg and leavening? How about fat (butter/oil)? What other ingredients are you not supposed to exactly double? And, what are specific guidelines?
Sticking with the banana bread example, given the following ingredients -- 2 cups flour, 1 t soda, 2 eggs, 3/4 c sugar, 1/2 c oil, 1 c mashed banana, 1/2 t salt and 1 t vanilla -- which of these would you NOT double, and what would the adjustment be?
Thanks for solving this mystery!
Comments
Hi Lynn - I don't think there's a real issue in altering small-scale recipes by simply doubling the ingredients. This theory that it matters may come more from commercial baking production where it would likely make a greater difference. The only caveats is to make sure that the doubled amount can fit comfortably in your mixer so your dough or batter can mix properly. If you can't incorporate enough air during mixing, the cake may be dense and even potentially fall while baking if it lacks structure. Stella Parks over at Serious Eats has a great article on scaling recipes for different sized pans that also talks a little bit about doubling (she's firmly in the camp of "it's fine to double a small-scale recipe" too). Hope that helps! Best, Lynn