How to Properly Measure Flour for Baking

Open a cookbook full of baking recipes, and you'll find you often need to use flour. Flour is the main ingredient in many baked goods including bread, cake, cookies and brownies. If you don't add enough flour, your dough or cake mix will be too runny, for example. On the other hand, add too much flour, and a cake will be dry and crumbly. The top can even burst or crack, according to Domino Sugar (see resources). It's not hard to properly measure flour for baking. You just need a set of measuring cups and the know-how.

Difficulty:

Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Butter knife
• Measuring cups
• Tablespoon

1. Stir the flour gently in its canister with the blade of the butter knife to add air to it. Because flour is powdery, it easily becomes packed down. Stirring it also removes any lumps.

2. Choose the proper measuring cup(s) for the amount of flour you need: 1 cup, 3/4 cup, 1/2 cup, 1/4 cup or 1/8 cup. Hold the measuring cup over the canister. Spoon the flour into it lightly. Don't pack it down, and don't dip the measuring cup into the canister or you'll get too much. Overfill the cup so the flour is mounded above the top of the measuring cup.

3. Place the blade of the butter knife onto the edge of the top of the measuring cup. Sweep it across the cup to level it.

4. Repeat Step 2 and Step 3 to properly measure additional amounts of flour for baking.

References

• How to Measure Flour for Baking

Resources

• Domino Sugar