Bread not pi
My standard go-to loaf of home baked bread uses a 7g sachet of yeast and produces a nice, small loaf.
The yeast suppliers offer not only a 7g sachet but also an 11g sachet.
I have been under a little pressure to make a larger loaf so I scaled up all the other ingredients in the equivalent ratio of 7:11, ie 57.1428% increase.
As my kitchen scale is not marked to 4 decimal places, I was forced to round all the weights up or down.
Coping with 3.14 teaspoons of salt was challenging.
Now you will have spotted that the ratio of 11 to 7 is half of pi, π, or 22/7.
So the most accurate way of getting the measurements right is to multiply by 0.5π
So 225g of strong white flour became 225 x 0.5 π = 353.5714g flour.
Neat eh?
All that was fine until I got to the actual loaf tin which, in my estimation, would be too small, so I built a "collar" of baking parchment inside the tin to allow the loaf to rise while being supported. This is in the style of a collar for a rising soufflé which I'm sure you all do regularly.
The loaf you see is the result. Perhaps a little too much overhang like the eaves of a fairytale, gingerbread cottage, but overall, a success.
It was pronounced the best ever loaf in terms of crust (not too hard), texture, and flavour.
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