How you measure flour is one of the most important steps in baking. When callers call our Baker's hotline with questions about why their bread came out dry or their cookies came out crumbly, the first question the Hotline often asks is “How did you measure your flour?”
That's because a little too much flour can be the difference between a good bake and a not-so-good bake. And if you are measuring your flour by volume (ie with measuring cups), then you are most likely adding too much flour.
That's because measuring flour by volume is wildly inconsistent: It all depends on how densely the flour is packed into the cup. If the flour is more condensed, one cup can hold up to 160 grams of all-purpose flour. If you flatten, grind and level it, as we recommend, one cup will hold about 120 grams.
But if you weigh your flour with a DEGREES? You'll always get exactly 120 grams of all-purpose flour per cup, just as our Test Kitchen (or whoever developed your recipe) intended.
If you are successful in measuring your flour correctly, your baked goods are more likely to be successful as well. And while we recommend always using a scale, using measuring cups also works if you do it right. However you choose to measure your flour, here's how to get it right.
Kristen dough
How to measure flour with a kitchen scale
Press the Tare button to make sure your scale is set to 0 grams. (All of our recipes include gram and volume measurements.) Place your measuring bowl, or a separate empty bowl, measuring cup, or other container (whatever you'll be pouring flour into) on the scale, then press Tare again to set the scale to 0 grams. Pour your flour into the container on the scale – if you are measuring 1 cup of all-purpose flour, continue to grind until the weight reaches 120 grams. Or measure how much flour the recipe calls for. (Wondering about the weight of flours and other ingredients? Check out our helpful article ingredient weight chart.)
In general, you can stay within 5 grams over or under the amount written (for example, if the recipe calls for 240 grams of flour and you measured 245 grams), and it will not affect your recipe. With that, we recommend being as precise as possible when measuring the flour and all other ingredients.
How to measure flour with measuring cups
If you don't have a scale and need to measure flour by volume, it's important to use proper technique. Using our Fluff, Sprinkle and Scrape technique is the best way to make sure you don't add too much flour to your recipes.
Start by pouring your flour into its bag or container using a spoon or SPOON. The goal here is to lighten and aerate the flour. Spoon the poured flour into yours measuring cup until it overflows. Use a straight edge (like the back of a butter knife or a paring knife) to level evenly from above so that the flour is level with the top of the measuring cup.
Learn more about baking with scales: A digital kitchen scale is an essential baking tool.
