Dear Fredricka,
>Now I want to further enhance this bread by replacing the sugar with honey
>but I have twisted my brain trying to calculate the liquid difference!
>
>The recipe calls for 1 3/4 cups of water and 1/3 cup of sugar. (7 cups of
>flour total) What I have come up with is 3/4 cup of water and 3T of honey.
>
>But it doesn't seem correct. Please help!
I read the above conundrum on the list today, and thought I should help:
you're right, you're way off!
Honey contains only %18 percent water, so for all practical purposes, you
just treat it like regular sugar in recipes. However, honey is sweeter
than sugar, which doesn't usually impact the flavor so much, but can affect
browning during baking. Also, in general, when you substitute ingredients
in recipes, you must use an equal WEIGHT of the substituted ingredient,
without regard to volume.
In your case, use 3 tablespoons honey (65 grams) for 1/3 cup sugar (67
grams) (so far, so good), but use the full measure of water--1 3/4 cup. You
might need to add just a spoonful more flour, but nothing worth changing
your recipe for. The honey is only adding a few teaspoons of water to the
dough.
When you bake the bread, you might find it browning faster than normal
(although the recipe is not very sweet, so I doubt it), in which case you
should keep the same baking time, but reduce the temperature 25 degrees F,
tenting it with foil if it is still browning too much.
Lots of luck with your baking!
Maggie Glezer