Okay, now I'm hearing that if you don't weigh your flour in baking, the best

D

dawnnys

Well-known member
way to get an accurate measurement is to scoop... I thought that was the worst thing you could do, compacting it and thus getting more flour than you think you're getting.

ATK says:

SECOND-BEST: DIP AND SWEEP

Dip a dry measuring cup into the flour, sweeping away excess flour with a flat edge. This method yields more accurate results than spooning flour into a measuring cup. (??)

 
You know, I think it is overagonized about anyway. I just can't think of that many

things that the small variations make much difference in. Doesn't matter much in cookies. Bread you usually have to adjust a little, kneading in more flour or adding a bit more liquid. Pie pastry usually gives a range of amounts of water to use less or more of as needed. Sorry, but I think of baking more as an art than a science and I like it that way. If you do it all the time you do by feel and look as much as measurements. Our ultra hot and humid summers probably affect the flour amount more than the measuring method.

 
Everyone has their own opinion on how to measure flour - Of course, weight is the best, but there

are differing opinions on the spoon and sweep vs the scoop and sweep. I either weigh or do the spoon and sweep.

Just as an example, here are three different sources with their preferred measuring methods:

King Arthur: Spoon and Sweep: 1 cup equals 4.25 oz
Fine Cooking: Spoon and Sweep: 1 cup equals 4.5 oz
Cook's Illustrated: Scoop and sweep: 1 cup equals 5 oz

 
I think they mean that the weight of the dipped and swept cup of flour. . .

will be closer to a weight measure of flour than the "spoon-into-cup" measured flour.

Weight is weight. Volume, by dip and sweep measure, given all other variables (like moisture, size of pieces of item being measured by volume, etc) *might* be the same weight as the weighed measure. Spooned and swept would be the lightest in weight, and thus the "less accurate" measure--unless you wanted something to be volume measured but very light in weight. . .

It really depends on what you are making and what tools of weight/volume measurement you have on hand.

 
Only according to what "they consider 1 cup to equal in weight. As my example shows in my previous

post, each source considers 1 cup of flour to be a different weight. When I weigh my 1 cup of Gold Medal Unbleached flour, after measuring it with the spoon and sweep method, it equals exactly 4.5 oz every time. So, this agrees with the Fine Cooking's assessment. King Arthur is only .25 oz less then that, but the Cook's Illustrated is .5 oz more.

Again, here's the chart:
King Arthur: Spoon and Sweep: 1 cup equals 4.25 oz
Fine Cooking: Spoon and Sweep: 1 cup equals 4.5 oz
Cook's Illustrated: Scoop and sweep: 1 cup equals 5 oz

What many people do is when they make recipes from CI, they use the CI measurement equivalents, and when using Fine Cooking, they use the Fine Cooking equivalents, etc. With general recipes, one has to go by one's preferred method, or better yet, just weigh the damn flour!

 
There's a great chart in Peter Reinhart's "Bread Baker's Apprentice" that deal with all >>>

these variables. It gives you weight or relative volume measurements for everything from flour to yeast. I mean really, how many of us are able to weigh .75 grams?

The book's a terrific resource and despite the science, it also addresses the art and individual aesthetic.

 
Steve, I'm shocked....

that you don't have the balance beam scale sitting on the counter for doing just such weights as you cook!

smileys/teeth.gif

 
Right. I know that weight is probably better than getting a volume of it by any method, but

I had always heard that "scoop-and-add to the measuring cup" was a more accurate measure than cramming the measuring cup into the bag of flour and stuffing the compacted flour into the cup. That was my question... maybe I just need more coffee.

Thanks for the reply(s) but I'm more cofused than ever - I'll just keep spooning and measuring into the cup like my 7th grade home ec teacher taught us ;o) I don't have a scale.

 
That's exactly how I learned it, and have always had good results with the spoon and sweep method.

 
According to Shirley Corriher, humidity doesn't affect the amount of liquid needed as much as the

amount of protein in the flour, and that varies from brand to brand of the same type of flour.

 
I don't think so, Steve.

Since cornmeal comes in fine, medium and coarse grinds, it still needs to be weighed!

 
And just to toss a wrench in that, MS says to whisk flour before scooping

Personally I do the spoon/scoop most often. But I recall Martha demoing using a whisk in her flour container to uncompact the flour before scooping.

 
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