To the Gram, No Compromise

We have already ventured into the world of those who cook “by eye” and, for the sake of fairness, it is only right to pay a visit to the home of those who, before they even start cooking, have already placed the kitchen scales on the worktop. They are not satisfied with “a handful” or “a glass”: they want to know exactly how many grams of flour are needed, how many millilitres of milk and how much sugar to add.

It is not necessarily a question of being more or less fussy, or of belonging to a particular zodiac sign. It is about recognising that some recipes work precisely because of the balance between their ingredients and, especially when it comes to baking, just how important that balance can be.

In savoury preparations and everyday cooking, there is usually a certain amount of freedom: we can taste, adjust and make changes along the way. In baking, however, the situation is quite different. Flour, sugar, fats, liquids and leavening agents need to find a precise balance to achieve the right consistency, structure and volume. If we increase or decrease one ingredient, the others may be affected as well, compromising the final result and the quality of the preparation. For example, a dough containing too much liquid may become softer than expected, too much flour can make it drier, and changing the amount of yeast does not necessarily mean simply ending up with a “softer” cake.

This is why kitchen scales have become almost indispensable for anyone who loves baking. They are not just useful for following a recipe: they make it possible to recreate it. If that cake turned out perfectly, knowing that we used exactly the same quantities means that, next time, we can aim for the same result.

The desire for precision, after all, is not limited to weighing ingredients. In recent years, kitchen appliances and multifunction food processors have also brought an increasingly precise way of following recipes into our homes. With these appliances, we are used to setting grams, millilitres, cooking times, temperatures and speeds, turning a recipe into a sequence of steps and measurements to follow one by one, while reducing variables to a minimum.

To make life easier for those who are less comfortable with meticulous measuring, there are many ready-to-use mixes available for puddings, muffins, waffles, crêpes and pancakes, already portioned and designed to help you make delicious homemade treats.

At Ar.pa Lieviti, alongside our mixes for crème caramel, ice cream and crema catalana, we have also created a ready-to-use flour and yeast mix. Together with an artisan mill in the province of Modena, we developed Impasta e Basta, a blend of yeast and type 00 flour, already perfectly portioned and ready to be mixed into a dough. The mix is available in two versions, one for sweet recipes and one for savoury recipes. Simply add the fresh ingredients - measured by grams or even just by pinches - and then bake or cook as required.

Those who know us already know that Ar.pa Lieviti is your best friend in the kitchen.

Have we made you curious? Try Impasta e Basta. Find it at www.arpalieviti.shop/impastaebasta