Photo: Kemp Minifie
Ladies and gentlemen, rev up your ovens. The holiday baking season is in full throttle. The single most important tip for success in baking bears repeating every year: Dry ingredients and liquid ingredients are not measured in the same type of cup.
For dry ingredients, use metal or plastic nesting cups that allow you to spoon in the ingredient, then level it off with a straight edge, such as a ruler or knife. For liquids, use a clear glass or plastic cup with gradations on the side that allow you to view it at eye level to make sure you are hitting the mark (peering down from above gives you a distorted and inaccurate reading).
I was reminded of this last week, when a colleague and I were chatting about Christmas cookies, and it became apparent that she has always used a liquid measuring cup to measure her flour. She spoons it into her clear glass measure, then shakes the cup to level the flour. By doing this, she’s compressing the flour, which means that she’s using more than the recipe developer intended.
I tried her method this morning on a cup of flour and it resulted in a variance of about three tablespoons. That’s the difference between a delicious, buttery cookie, and a dry, floury one.
Of course, all of this would be a moot point if we weighed our ingredients, like the rest of the world. Come on America, let’s make 2012 the year we switch over to using scales!
Great reminder! This is quite important! I’m happy to say that my digital scale has been a kitchen staple for quite some time now. So onward and forward for 2012. :)
Wonderful, another thing taking up precious counterspace……….
I always measure my ingredients by weight—if they list the weight. It is so frustrating not to go by weight as it makes the most sense. Good public tip!
I agree! Weighing gives much more accurate results and a tiny digital scale takes up way less room than all those measuring cups and spoons!
Thanks for the reminder! I never paid that much attention but I will now. Just in time for a big baking weekend. Much appreciated.
Some cup measures have the liquid (fluid ounces) engraved inside the bottom of the cup so you can measure flour and then go on and measure liquid. Soooo much faster than scales!
I’m always impressed and happy to see the number of cooks who use scales. Keep on weighing!
Weighing would make all my cookbooks obsolete! Not going there …
I KNEW I had read that somewhere! Thank you for the reminder (and the explanation!). I live in Europe and everyone always teases me because I still tend to measure in cups, but now you have me convinced!
Happy holidays!
How much does a cup of flour weigh? How much does a half cup of shortening (Crisco) weigh? Are there conversion tables that go from volume to weight?
Aye, there’s the rub, Grits
“Accepted” weights for a cup of flour range from 4.2 to 5 ounces, depending on who wrote the recipe. and cake flour is different from AP…is different from whole wheat…is different from rye…is different from…
I prefer to weigh my ingredients. However, is there a standard conversion table for recipes? I mean what does a cup of flour weigh? Does whole wheat flour weigh more than all purpose or cake flour? What about other baking ingredients?
time to also convert to kilograms, grams, liters and deci/milliliters! way more accurate
This is a good advice, but as marye wrote, measurements are so often written as cups ect. As also in this gourmet lives newsletter, holiday cookies recepies. Please start now and here to use weights. I have also an quetion to you all. As an european having difficult times converting measurements , could somebody please tell how much is a stick of butter ? 110 g, 125 g or ? It never is in any converting tables.
Happy holidays
Scales are the only thing. But how many people know, off hand the differing weights of various kinds of flours or weights of other ingredients. White flour weighs 4.3 ounces a cup. Whole wheat 4.5 ounces. At least my reference book says so. What about barley, rice, teff, semolina or Kamut flours? What does a cup of hundreds of other add-ons weigh? Those differing weights are out there but you have to dig to find them. A worth while endeavor to compliment and reinforce your scale.
Yeah scales!