Cooking For Engineers

[cozumelito]

I'm starting a business making all butter crust pies. While I can successfully combine the flour butter,sugar, salt, and water, my employees have a lot of problems with adding either not enough water or too much water. It seems some (most?) people aren't able to feel when the moisture content is correct. What makes it difficult, of course, is that depending on atmospheric and other conditions, the amount of water needed to be added varies all the time. At any rate, I've been doing some research on moisture meters and wonder if they could be used to establish when the correct level of moisture has been reached. I'm wondering if the butter, being mostly fat, would prevent the moisture meter from functioning properly. Or if some other factor makes them unuseable for this.

[DrBiggles]

[Dilbert]

first, I hope you are measuring things by weight, not volume.
and that means everything - flour, water, butter, salt, <whatever>

one assistant pastry chef's "cup" is not the same as the next.

the "need" for +/- flour is indeed a long standing variable with the environment. consider storing the flour in a controlled environment - walk in freeze works nicely - pretty dang low humidity _all the time_.

you will need to provide a "conditioning" time - with good circulation around a 'sack" I'd try a week in the freezer prior to use for consistent results.

oh, those "stick in" moisture meters for plants depend on electrical current / flow and yes, I would expect "fat" to affect their accuracy / readings. neat idea tho.....