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.
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:
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.
See those bowls? Each bowl contains one cup of flour, or does it?
I use the three most common ways of measuring to try out this experiment. Let’s see how this it all turns out.
This 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.
The 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.
Last 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.
I 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,
I prefer using a scale than weighing cups too. I agree, once you know it you cannot do otherwise. Great post for every person interested in baking.
I love this! Thanks for sharing. I weigh my flour, but not really much else. I am going to start weighing my powdered sugar and see if my royal icing changes!
Thanks for sharing!
I, too, weigh ingredients – especially flour and powdered sugar. I made a chart that I keep in the front of my recipe book that lists the weights of flour by 1/4 cup increments so when I bake, and the recipe calls for (for example) 2 1/2 cups of flour, I don’t have to start adding – I just check the chart and I can just spoon the correct amount of flour into the bowl on the scale.
Lisa – You are so great. I am so grateful for all of your tips and tutorials. I love your work and have learned so much for you. From this moment on…weighing will be done in my kitchen! Thank you.
I measure for my dough and that’s how I get it all good. 1 cup of powder sugar = 40z Ty for the cute chart
I just moved to the UK, where all baking measurements are done by weighing. This is the perfect time for this post, as I was just about to attempt some sugar cookie baking for the first time since the big move and was wondering how I’d cope without my measuring cups (which are in storage!). Not to mention I’d previously had problems with too much flour in my cookies. Thank you!!!!
I have a scale snd I really should be using it more! Thanks for the chart!!
Thanx so much…I had no idea. Now I will measure to make sure! 🙂
So enlighten me please….. 1 cup of flour does NOT = 8oz? How and why? TIA
Hi Ginny,
It weights 4.25 ounces. 😉
Lisa, I have learned so much from you! I have seen this several times, but it really sunk in just recently. I did buy a scale- and now, because of your post, I NOW ALWAYS- ALWAYS-ALWAYS weigh my ingredients and it has made such a big difference! Thank you for all you post and do for us. I have read this many different times- but it seems like I always learn something new! You are awesome!