A few years back I decided I was going to start measuring ingredients by weight for all my baking. I bought an OXO food scale and plunged into the world of pounds and ounces, and it completely transformed the way I bake. To this day, that scale is one of the best kitchen purchases I've ever made. Measuring the traditional way (by volume, with cups) works, but it's a flawed system. Ingredients are more likely to be measured incorrectly, which can potentially throw off a recipe completely. Flour in particular is one of the easiest ingredients to mis-measure, and at the same time one of the most important to measure correctly in order to ensure the success of a recipe. SO, if you don't own a scale, it's crucial that you measure your flour properly by hand. Today we're learning how to do that!
Jump to:
Why I recommend weighing your flour
You can measure flour without a scale, but it's SO much easier with one. If you purchase a good one it'll last you years, and you get rewarded with less measuring cups dirtied, greater measuring accuracy, and more foolproof baking. It also makes it easier to understand how recipes work; once you can learn the basic ratio of ingredients by weight for different types of recipes, it's much simpler to make substitutions and even come up with your own recipes from scratch.
How much does a cup of flour weigh?
There's some discrepancy over how much a single cup of flour should weigh (which just goes to show why weighing your ingredients is the much simpler route, since 1 pound will always be 1 pound), but most sources will figure it somewhere between 4 ¼ - 4 ½ ounces. All the recipes you find on this blog will equate 4 ¼ ounces to 1 cup of flour. This isn't something you need to be concerned with if you're creating your own recipe or following one with weight measurements already listed, but in the event that the recipe you're looking at is written in volume measurements only, you're much better off whipping out a scale and weighing out 4 ¼ ounces for every cup called for. The same really goes for every ingredient in a recipe, but flour is one of the most crucial.
Measuring flour without a scale
Now, if you ARE going to measure your flour by hand, here's how it's done.
5 minutes 5 minutes
How to measure flour accurately without a kitchen scale:
- Whisk your flour.
Give your flour a good whisk to loosen it up; flour has a habit of settling and compacting, and one thing you never want to do is measure out a packed cup of flour.
- Spoon into a measuring cup.
Lightly spoon flour into your measuring cup. You don't want to scoop it straight into the cup because that'll cause that compacting that we don't want.
- Step 3: Level
Use a knife to swipe away the excess flour and level off your cup.
Once all is said and done, you should have a cup of flour that's properly measured. We call this the spoon-and-level method, and you'll see that specified for measuring flour in every recipe on the blog.
Copyright protected by Digiprove © 2015
Sharyl Wolter
I would like to win it so I can be more precise in baking breads, cakes, etc.
Terri C
I've needed one of these for years, I love to bake bread and sometimes I get to much in it. Also I'd love to have one for dietary reasons. Thanks for the chance!
Kathy
I'd love to know that I'm baking with the proper amounts.
Ashlovett
Love your post. I'm motivated!
Jayne
I have been looking for a reliable kitchen scale for ages but have never found one that I like. Until this OXO one. :-)
Janetfctc
I would love to win because my ancient scale goes bonkers anytime I try to weigh anything anymore, lol
Darlene
Love OXO products. I do not buy any other brand. I also give OXO products as gifts.
Jason
Because OXO make Awesome Products
Cindy
That looks like the coolest scale ... ever!!!
julie
I would love to win, my husband weighs his food to portion control and our scale has been broken for a while
Avra-Sha Faohla
Because I'm an avid baker. I would definitely use it!
Becky Downing
I would love to win the OXO food scale because I know OXO products are high quality. My current kitchen scale only measures up to 5 lbs and at that, I am not sure it is accurate. My dream kitchen would have one of everything made by OXO!
I now bake all the bread for our family and having the OXO scale would simplify that process.
Michael T
would like to win this for my wife, when it comes to baking she goes a little freestyle and doesnt measure anything. She could use some help.
Sheila
Perfect tool for the kitchen. My mom had one & used it all the time.
Mark wagstaff
to make baking much easier.