Need help with measurements!

P

pam

Well-known member
My son requested a cookie recipe from the school's bakers and of course it's by weights and in huge amounts. Can anyone tell me how to cut it back and translate it into cups rather than pounds? Thanks

Ingredients:

3 eggs

1/2 tsp. salt

2 1/2 tsp. baking soda

2 # flour

1 tsp vanilla

1# Brown sugar

2# white sugar

3# peanutbutter

2# shortening

 
There is a site, but it might take me a minute or two to find it. It converts all sorts

of recipes to large/small amounts. 'Will post if no one else does in the next few minutes!

 
Hmm, here is the site I was looking for, but you kind of have to seach for

a recipe that is similar to yours and then convert backwards. I typed in "300" instead of "54" (original recipe called served that many), and I kind of got close to the amounts you listed ("7 cups of peanut butter"). You might want to play around with it a little if you can't find a better site.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Favorite-Peanut-Butter-Cookies/Detail.aspx

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Favorite-Peanut-Butter-Cookies/Detail.aspx

 
Pam, here's a good site....gives flour, sugar, butter, shortening by pound to cup

Looks like a good "math" lesson in disguise you can work with your son. (It will also make him appreciate all your time and work in the kitchen).

You can either convert everything to Cups, take 1/3 of everything and use 1 whole egg.

Or take 1/2 of everything, put 3 eggs in a bowl, mix, measure, then take 1/2 of that.

1# shortening = 2 Cups
1# flour = 3 3/4 to 4 Cups
1# brown sugar = 3 1/2 Cups
1# white sugar = 2 1/4 Cups

All of these are easier to halve.

And if you have a scale and know you want to halve all the ingredients, than you can just weight it out like they do in the cafeteria.

http://www.perfectentertaining.com/article1017.html

 
Got it! I just love math!

From that site:

2 cups of BUTTER is a pound (peanut butter too? Well, or you could just use the weight that the jar of peanut butter says it is, I guess), 2 cups of white sugar is a pound, but 2.5 cups of brown sugar is a pound, 2 cups of shortening is a pound, and 4 cups of flour is a pound…

So,

3 eggs
1/2 tsp salt
2.5 tsp baking soda
2# flour (8 cups)
1 tsp vanilla
1# Brown sugar (2.5 cups)
2# white sugar (4 cups)
3# peanut butter (6 cups)
2# shortening (4 cups)

 
I already put mine in there, would've included hers too, except the one I put there, had a printable

copy option included at the site.

Great minds think alike! ;o)

 
My conversion is a little different from Dawn's>>>

I've been trying to convert my recipes from cups to weights, and here are some of the conversions I use:

1 cup white sugar = 7 oz.
1 cup brown sugar = 7 1/2 oz.
1 cup flour = 4 1/2 oz.
1 cup peanut butter = 9 oz.
1 cup shortening = 8 oz.

Based on these conversions (and using Excel to calculate for me:), I came up with the following:

3 eggs
1/2 tsp. salt
2 1/2 tsp. baking soda
7 cups flour
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/8 cups brown sugar (I'd round down to 2 cups)
4 1/2 cups white sugar
5 1/3 cups peanut butter
4 cups shortening

To cut the recipe in half, I'd use the following:

1 1/2 eggs*
1/4 tsp. salt
1 1/4 tsp. baking soda
3 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup brown sugar
2 1/4 cups white sugar
2 1/2 cups peanut butter
2 cups shortening

(If I cut a recipe in half, and it calls for 1/2 egg, I usually just use either the white or the yolk, and call it a half.)

The conversions from weights to cups don't always come out with normal measurements, and for most ingredients, I can usually round it up or down to the nearest 1/4 cup, especially for the flour and sugar stuff.

FYI, for the peanut butter, most jars are 18 ounces, which should equal 2 cups.

Good luck with the recipe - I hope it comes out like the school's!

 
Here's a chart that I've been compiling as I convert my recipes>>>

I have a worksheet taped to the inside of my cabinet, and I refer to it often, when trying to convert my recipes from cups to weights.

I try to remember to add new things to my list, as I measure them.

I also write the 1-cup-weight of a new ingredient directly on the box the first time I weigh it - no sense weighing it twice or thrice, 'cause I can't remember what it weighed the last time.... smileys/smile.gif

When I measure my flour, I aerate it a little bit, scoop it with a scoop, and pour it into my measuring cup. (I dunno if that's equivalent to a dip-and-sweep method, or the scoop-and-sweep method, or whatever other method they use for measuring flour.)

So here's my list.

1 cup of ____ weighs:

sugar, white 7 oz.
sugar, brown 7 3/4 oz
sugar, powdered 4 1/4 oz
sugar, maple 8 oz

flour, all purp 4 1/2 oz
flour, bread 4 3/4 oz
flour, cake 4 oz
flour, rice 5 1/2 oz

milk, 2% 8 1/2 oz
milk, buttermilk 8 1/2 oz
milk, soy 8 1/2 oz


bananas, mashed 8 oz
canola oil 7 3/4 oz
cocoa 3 oz
corn syrup, dark 11 1/2 oz
corn syrup, light 12 oz
cornstarch 4 1/2 oz
oatmeal 3 oz
peanut butter 9 oz
pecans 3 1/2 oz
rice krispies 1 oz
corn flakes 1 oz

Hope that helps!

 
I also like the linked site for conversions: nutritiondata.com

I can put "peanut butter" into the search box, and a bunch of peanut butter items comes up. I'll find the one I'm looking for, and it'll give me the nutritional data as well as the grams weight.

Then I convert the grams to ounces, using the Google search page calculator (i.e. "258 grams in ounces" will display 9.100068218 ounces)

It takes a little extra time, but I think it's more accurate than a lot of the conversion sites. And as long as I write it down on my chart, I should only have to look each item up once.....


And once in a while, I'll actually double check some of the weights on my scale to make sure it's right smileys/smile.gif

nutritiondata.com

 
Does this seem like alot of shortening for the other ingredients? just wondering

Especially with the amount of peanut butter too. Just wondering. It seemed like alot to me.

 
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