How do you measure flour if you are using cups? Dip & Sweep or Spoon & Sweep? You can learn how to convert cups to grams. Baking conversion chart and Fahrenheit to Celsius conversion chart are also included!
I love working with grams which I believe gives accurate results. Digital scale is my everything in the kitchen. In pastry, scaling is extremely important. If we use too much or less flour than needed, the taste and the texture of the cookies, cakes, etc. will be different.
I use a digital scale. However, in my recipes, you can also find cup conversions as many people use them. For those who use cups, in order to have the same results, it is a must to know which method I use while measuring the flour.
For some people 1 cup flour= 120 grams, for others 1 cup=140 grams. It is because of the different methods people are using. If I can’t use my digital scale for some reason which is very very rare (let’s say I need to replace my scale’s battery and I don’t have it at that moment!), I use dip&sweep method.
Dip & Sweep Method
If you use cup measurements, you should keep your flour in a big jar, so you can easily dip your cup into the flour.
First I stir the flour to aerate it. Then I dip my cup into the flour, without shaking the cup I overfill it. Aerating the flour and not shaking the cup are the keys to the right measurement.
If we shake the cup or forget to aerate the flour while we are filling, more than needed will be packed and measured and this is what we don’t want.
After I overfill it, I sweep the excess flour off the top with my spatula. You can use the back of a knife too.
That’s all! I come up with 140 grams.
Dip & Sweep or Spoon & Sweep?
Some people are comfortable with the spoon&sweep method where you spoon the flour into your cup instead of dipping your cup into the flour.
I’ve realized that most people who use this method accept 1 cup flour somewhere between 115 grams and 125 grams. I tried that method but I am not close to those numbers.
Shortly, I tried both methods, dip and sweep method is more accurate(at least for me). You can’t go wrong with this method if you do the steps carefully. This is a safe method. I would like to repeat the steps:
- stir the flour to aerate it,
- dip your cup into the flour,
- without shaking your cup, overfill it,
- sweep the excess off the top with a spatula or the back of a knife.
That’s it!
You come up with 140 grams.
If you still insist on using the spoon&sweep method,
to reach my 1 cup flour measurement, you should add 2 tablespoons of flour into your 1 cup flour. (I assume spoon&sweep method as 120 grams as it is mostly accepted that way, so the difference is 20 grams=2 tablespoons)
Equipment
- Measuring cup
Ingredients
- All-Purpose Flour
Instructions
- Stir the flour to aerate it. Dip your measuring cup(1 cup) into the flour, without shaking the cup overfill it. Aerating the flour and not shaking the cup are the keys to the right measurement.
- Sweep the excess flour off the top with a spatula or with the back of a knife.
- That's all! When you use a scale it should show 140 grams.
Notes
Cup to Grams Conversions
Below you can find my cup to grams conversions. (I rounded some ingredients. For example, ½ cup brown sugar= 110 grams instead of 112,5 grams.)
I’ll update the list during my blog journey. You may realize that I write powdered sugar only in tablespoons because my powdered sugar cup conversion is very different than people who use cup conversions for powdered sugar.
I write my recipes in grams and cups even for liquids (I include the ml option for those who may want to use it). If other recipes call for milliliters (and if I can’t convert into grams easily), I use a glass liquid measuring cup.
I never look at the measuring cup below or above the eye level but just the eye level. So if you need, you should bend down to be at the eye level to make the correct measurement.
I will give you a little ratio that I think you may like if you prefer using grams even for the liquids.
When a recipe calls ml for water, you can use the exact amount in grams for water. But this is not the case for milk:
240 ml whole milk= 247 g (updated on March 21,2021)
If you multiply the ml milk amount by 1.03, you can find its gram equivalent. You don’t need to use your liquid measuring cup, what you need is a little math (1000 ml whole milk*1.03=1030 grams) 😉
Conversion Chart For Baking
Note: I updated the baking powder amount in 2019. 1 teaspoon weighs 4-5 grams. I accept 1 teaspoon=4 grams.
If you need to convert Fahrenheit to Celsius, you can use the chart below:
Conversion Chart For Temperature
I hope you find all the information helpful.
Happy baking 🙂
