Hey Besties! Many people grow up baking under the knowledgeable wings of their mothers, grandmothers and other great bakers! But not everyone grows up baking and it’s easy to overlook some of the seemingly trivial parts of baking that actually make a HUGE difference! And since I get questions on this from time to time, I thought I might as well share a quick post on how to measure flour the right way! Let’s dive in to see learn how the way you measure can easily make or break your results!
Why is my dough crumbly?
This is just one question I see and hear from bakers along with those who question why their baked goods are dry. And it’s almost always due to one of two reasons. First, if dough is crumbly, you may just need to mix it longer to come together. With all my cookie recipes, I include a note that is your dough seems crumbly, mix for another minute and if your ingredients were measured properly, it comes together.
The other question I receive is from bakers who say, “This batch is super dry, but I always use the same recipe so why was this batch different?” Besties, these issues are almost always solved by knowing how to measure flour correctly.
How Do You Measure Your Flour?
So, this is almost always my first question back to someone struggling with this crumbly dough, dry baked goods or inconsistent results. And for a lot of people, they are kind of thrown by this question. Like, “Geez lady, I know how to read a measuring cup!” But that’s not what I mean, so let’s talk through this.
Most recipes include both volume measurement and weighed measurements. If you are referencing a recipe that only provides volume measurements, an online conversion tool can be useful.
For this example, let’s use a recipe that calls for 360g of flour. You have a few ways you can go about measuring that. I used three different methods to illustrate the differences in the results and outcomes.
Spoon and Level method of Measuring
First, you can use a spoon and a measuring cup to measure. Simply using a spoon to fill up your measuring cup and then level off. I did this three times to compare how much flour I was actually measuring out.
- Trial 1 yielded 372 g of flour
- Trial 2 yielded 368 g of flour
- Trial 3 yielded 365 g of flour
Not bad, right? Each time it was slightly above the 360 g the recipe called for, but very negligible. An extra 8-10 g of flour is not going to make or break most cookie or cake recipes.
Scooping Method of measuring
In this method, we simply used the measuring cup to scoop flour out of our container and then level off. Here are our results from 3 trials again:
- Trial 1 yielded 414 g of flour
- Trial 2 yielded 419 g of flour
- Trial 3 yielded 432 g of flour
Now this method is where you will see a difference in your results. If we were actually baking, we’d be using anywhere from 50-80 extra grams of flour. And that is enough extra flour that you will notice a drier outcome, dough that is crumbly or doesn’t come together and simply inconsistent results from batch to batch. When you’re using a measuring cup and scooping your flour, you’re packing it, which results in far too much.
Weighing Method of measuring
In this method, we used a digital kitchen scale to weigh out our flour. And as you can probably guess, we weighted out 360 g of flour, which is exactly what the recipe called for. There’s never any guessing games or inconsistency in your results when you weigh your flour.
We have two kitchen scales that work wonderfully, and I regularly recommend. These kitchen scales are ridiculously affordable, and every baker should have one. You can find the ones we love HERE and HERE.
And then I usually receive a follow-up message after they start weighing their flour to share what a difference it has made! 😊
Making Baking Easier
As you can tell, weighing your flour will always be the most accurate. But if you’re not going to weigh, then use the spoon and level method. Don’t ever SCOOP your flour out with your measuring cup or you’ll get very inconsistent results and likely dry outcomes.
I’m all about how to make baking fun, easier, quicker and more efficient with outstanding results. And once you know how to measure flour correctly, it really makes a difference! I hope my quick measuring trials and this post have been helpful for you. Measuring your flour properly is one thing you can check off your list to achieve delicious, beautiful results every time!
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