Divide and weigh dough into regular pieces


Divide and weigh dough into regular pieces
When you prepare dough for cupcakes in a pastry shop or bakery, at some point you're going to have to divide it, i.e. cut it into small pieces, which should all have the same weight.

Sounds simple enough, but is it really that simple?
13 K 5/5 (14 reviews)
Grade this page:
Keywords for this post:BakingPastryDoughWeighingDividingTipsRegularity
Last modified on: May 30th 2023
For this post: Comment Follow Ask me a question Send to a friend
Divide and weigh dough into regular pieces
The most natural way to do this is to place the pile of dough in front of you.


Then take enough dough from it to obtain the desired weight.

Then set this small dough piece aside, and repeat the operation until you reach the end of the initial pile of dough.
It's simple, and it works, of course, but without realizing it you're wasting a lot of time, because you'll have to make the right weight from scratch for each dough piece.

Can you do better?

Yes, and to do that you have to work like bakers do, i.e. cut the dough into squares.
To do this, you first need to roll out the dough roughly on your work surface, pressing it down with your hands, and at the same time giving it a vague square or roughly flat rectangle shape, about 1 to 3 cm thick.



Using a pastry cutter, cut out "columns" from the rectangle...


... which you can then cut into pieces.



Weigh each piece to check its weight, adjust if necessary by removing or adding a small piece of dough, then set it aside before moving on to the next.


You'll find that, at first, the pieces you cut won't be the right weight, but as time goes by, your eye will adjust to the desired weight, and you'll need to adjust the weight less and less.
This way of working (in "columns" and "rows") will enable you to divide the dough more quickly and easily.
It's not essential, but once you've got a piece at the right weight, lay it out in rows and columns too (as in the photo), so you'll know how much you've got at a glance.

To sum up: to divide a dough into several small pieces of the same weight, it's much easier and quicker to form it into a rectangle or square, and cut rows and columns from this rectangle.
Lasts posts
Congratulate the chef
Congratulate the chef
You've just finished a meal that you really enjoyed. The server approaches with the usual question: “How was it?” And then, as a natural reflex, you simply reply, “Yes, it was very good.” However, when the meal was truly outstanding, this brief exchange deserves a little more. .
July 7th 2026465 25
Cut twice as fast
Cut twice as fast
When you need to cut something long into small pieces, for example chopped chives or the stem of a spring onion, there's a simple gesture that doubles your cutting speed. Let's see how.
May 21th 20261,9395
The other use for bowl scraper
The other use for bowl scraper
Your kitchen or bakery utensils may include a horn (left) or a pastry cutter (right). These practical utensils are normally used to scoop the contents of a bowl or salad bowl - the horn - or to cut dough - the pastry cutter. But they also have another, very practical use - let's see what it is.
May 9th 20261,7693
The strange foam of potatoes in milk
The strange foam of potatoes in milk
As you may have already noticed, when you cook potatoes in milk, especially in small pieces (slices or cubes) for a gratin for example, a surprisingly abundant white foam forms on the surface. Where does it come from?
April 26th 20262,1755
A little leftover butter
A little leftover butter
Very often when you're making a cake, your recipe will tell you to melt some butter and mix it into the batter - a classic for cookies, cakes, moelleux and the like. And every time you do this, you'll have to butter the baking tin to prevent the dough from sticking during baking. Naturally,...
April 16th 20262,0745
Other pages you may also like
Cutting soft cheeses
Cutting soft cheeses
As you may have already noticed, when you have to use a "soft" cheese in a recipe - their exact name is "soft cheese" - such as Camembert, Munster or Mont d'or, it's not easy to make anything other than thick slices.
February 20th 202411 K5
Butter doesn't make you fat, unless you eat too much of it.
Butter doesn't make you fat, unless you eat too much of it.
Whenever I'm discussing cooking and recipes, there is one idea which comes up frequently, like this: "Oh no! But that's got butter in it" (I should add, for the sake of accuracy, that this is something I hear more frequently from women, who are almost all concerned with keeping their figure). ...
March 26th 201247 K4.5
The beautiful story of the croissants
The beautiful story of the croissants
As you may have already noticed, cooking, baking and pastry-making are full of stories or legends, usually very romantic, about this or that product or recipe. This is often the case for named recipes, for example tarte tatin, peach melba, paris-brest and many others, but it also applies to very...
October 10th 201822 K5
How to break eggs properly?
How to break eggs properly?
It is a very common gesture in pastry, bakery and of course cooking: breaking eggs to incorporate them into a recipe. You have eggs (which professionals call "shell eggs" to differentiate them from liquid eggs in cartons or cans), and you must break them to incorporate the contents into your...
June 26th 202116 K4.8
Don't throw away your pizza crusts
Don't throw away your pizza crusts
You've probably already noticed that at the end of a pizza meal, at least half of the participants have left the crusts in the boxes or on the plates that many don't eat. Naturally, one would tend to put them "to the birds", or worse, to throw them away, and it's a shame because they are in fact...
April 22th 202311 K4.9
Post a comment or question
Posted by
I am not a leaving thing
Follow this page

Receive an e-mail as soon as this page is modified or receives a new comment.

I am not a leaving thing
We'll never share your e-mail address with anyone else.
Alternatively: you can subscribe to the mailing list of cooling-ez.com , you will receive a e-mail for each new recipe published on the site.

Back to top of page