How to Measure Flour – with and without a Kitchen Scale
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Correctly measuring flour is key for baking success. Too much flour and baked goods can end up dry and crumbly. If you’re not sure what a recipe means when it says to “measure the flour correctly” – here’s a simple tutorial on how to measure flour correctly.
Have you ever made cookies that ended up too dry, too hard, too crumbly, or didn’t flatten out whatsoever as they baked? Maybe you’ve tried making muffins that turned out dry and bland. All of these baking frustrations can be caused by adding too much flour. While measuring flour might seem simple, a small error can lead to big problems when making cookies, cakes, cupcakes and pastries.
While having less flour than needed can happen, it’s more likely to end up with too much flour. That’s because the flour gets packed down in the bag or storage container. When it’s packed down and you scoop out a cup of flour, you’ll end up with too much – even though you may have scooped out your cup to exactly the right level.
One cup of all-purpose flour weighs 125 grams or 4.4 ounces. However, I’ve found that simply scooping the packed flour into a measuring cup can easily end up with over 150-170 grams of flour. This increase can cause huge discrepancies in the results of your baking.
So – here are the 2 ways to ensure accuracy when measuring flour.
Measuring Flour with a Scale
A kitchen scale will take any guess work out of measuring dry ingredients. If you have one on hand, it will be the best option. Turn on your kitchen scale, place a bowl on top and then press the tare button to reset the scale to zero. Then spoon the flour into the bowl until you have 125 grams per 1 cup of all-purpose flour.
Measuring Flour with a Dry Measuring Cup
If you don’t have a kitchen scale, then dry measuring cups are the best option. Note that dry measuring cups are the designed for measuring flour, oats, sugar, nuts and other dry ingredients. These are the type that come in a set and each cup is for an exact measurement – such as 1/4, 1/3, 1/2 and 1 cup. They are not the clear Pyrex cups with delineations on the side. To measure flour accurately using a dry measuring cup:
- Fluff up the flour first so that it isn’t densely packed. You can do this with a wire whisk, 2 forks or scooping out flour and sprinkling it into the bag/flour storage container.
- Then spoon the flour into the dry measuring cup, sprinkling in each scoop.
- Level off the top of the dry measuring cup so that the top is flat.
Note: Different brands of flour will have slightly different weights per cup of flour. I use 125 grams per cup of flour in all of my recipes.
If you need more baking tips, here’s some of my other baking tips:
- Easy Tips for Better Baking
- How to Make Buttermilk – a game changer for so many cake, cupcakes & muffin recipes
- Baking with Oats – understand the differences between quick, instant and old-fashioned oats
- Easy Tips for Making the Perfect Bundt Cake
How to Measure Flour
Equipment
- dry measuring cups
Ingredients
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
Instructions
- Fluff up the flour either by whisking with a wire whisk, whisking with 2 forks or spooning and sprinkling the flour.
- Spoon the flour into a dry measuring cup, sprinkling each spoonful of flour into the cup.
- Level off the top using a flat edge.
