Baking Weight Chart

Do you weigh your baking ingredients? Once I began baking I knew I needed to invest in a food scale because the wrong measurements can ruin a recipe. Baking is a science and precision is vital to your baking success. I made a guide a few years ago and I use it all the time. I don’t know why I haven’t shared it with you before now, but here it is. A free printable weight chart just for you. I keep it hanging on the inside of my cabinet door so I can reference my little cheat sheet whenever I start baking. It is the perfect kitchen helper.

Free Printable Baking Weight Chart www.thebearfootbaker.com

I have to admit, the chart I had looked like chicken scratch and I was embarrassed to share it with you so I made a pretty version for us to use. I like this one much better so thank you for helping me make my baking cabinet look a bit more lovely.

Baking Weight Chart:

Weight Chart | The Bearfoot Baker


Baking Weight Chart

I know some of you don’t weigh your ingredients because you have a system that works. Like we say in the south, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” If you have a system that works then please don’t change it. I am one of those people that feels much better weighing ingredients because I feel it is a lot more accurate. Let me show you what I mean.

FREE PRINTABLE Baking Weight Chart - Does weighing your ingredients when baking really matter? via www.thebearfootbaker.comSee those bowls? Each bowl contains one cup of flour, or does it?

FREE PRINTABLE Baking Weight Chart - Does weighing your ingredients really matter? with www.thebearfootbaker.comI use the three most common ways of measuring to try out this experiment. Let’s see how this it all turns out.

FREE PRINTABLE Baking Weight Chart - Does weighing your ingredients really matter? www.thebearfootbaker.comThis cup of flour was measured by taking one spoonful of flour out of the container and placed into the measuring cup until the cup became full. Then, I used the back side of a butter knife to scrape off the excess flour so the flour in the cup was level.

One cup of all-purpose flour weighs 4.2 ounces. As you can see, spooning the flour weighs 4.8 ounces. Not bad for spooning the flour but it is a little too much for my sugar cookie recipe.

FREE PRINTABLE Baking Weight Chart with www.thebearfootbaker.comThe next cup was scooped out of the canister. This cup weighs 5.6 ounces. When you scoop 4 cups of flour that is required for your sugar cookie recipe, you are using an extra 5.6 ounces of flour. That is more than one extra cup per batch. This will cause your cookies to be very dry.

Even if your scooped cup weighs less than 5.6 ounces I bet it will still weigh more than the correct 4.2 ounces. Think of how much flour you will save in a year.

FREE PRINTABLE Baking Weight Chart - Does weighing your ingredients really matter? via thebearfootbaker.comLast but not least, one cup of flour that has been weighed on an inexpensive scale (about $20 at Wal-Mart) weighs a perfect 4.2 ounces every time. By using a scale and weighing my ingredients, my flour is accurate every time I bake.

FREE-PRINTABLE-Baking-Weight-Chart---Does-weighing-your-ingredients-really-matter--Find-out-at-www.thebearfootbaker.comI am going to let you in on a little secret. Once I started weighing my powdered sugar, my royal icing consistency improved 100%. Each time I weighed it I got a perfect 2.25 pounds and it made all the difference in the world. My royal icing is the exact same every single time. Weighing my powdered sugar is the single most important thing that helped my decorating. Before I weighed, I could never get the icing consistency right. That little $20 scale saved the day and many a batches of icing.

If you ever have a problem with a baking recipe, the first thing I would suggest to you is to weigh your ingredients to see if that fixes the problem. If your cookie dough that is sticky or dry, you need to adjust the the flour. If your royal icing is different every time you make it, you may want to invest in a food scale and watch your troubles disappear. It sure helped me.

Bear hugs,

Lisa