Okay, let’s talk about something that’s been bugging me in the kitchen lately: flour weight. Specifically, Gold Medal All Purpose flour. I use it all the time, right? But recipes online are all over the place. Some say a cup is this much weight, others say that much. And my baking? Yeah, sometimes great, sometimes kinda… meh. I figured it was time to just figure it out myself.
Getting Down to Business
So, the other afternoon, I decided to do a little experiment. Nothing fancy, just me, my kitchen scale, a bag of Gold Medal All Purpose flour (the regular blue and white bag, you know the one), and my standard one-cup dry measuring cup.
First things first, I put my empty measuring cup on the scale and hit the ‘tare’ button to zero it out. Gotta make sure we’re only weighing the flour, yeah?
The Scoop vs. The Spoon
Now, how you get the flour into the cup makes a huge difference. I know this, but I wanted to see it for myself again.
- Method 1: The Dip and Sweep. This is how I used to do it, just dipping the cup right into the flour bag or canister and leveling it off with a knife. So, I did that first. Packed it in there pretty good just by scooping.
- Method 2: The Spoon and Level. This is what the “experts” tell you to do. Use a spoon to lightly fill the measuring cup, making sure not to pack it down. Then, level it off with the back of a knife. I did this one next, carefully spooning it in.
The Weigh-In
Alright, moment of truth. I did each method a couple of times just to be sure it wasn’t a fluke.
For the Dip and Sweep method, jamming the cup in there, I consistently got readings around 135 to 140 grams. Sometimes even a bit more if I wasn’t careful. That flour gets packed!
Then, I tried the Spoon and Level method. Being gentle, not packing it. This way, the weight was much lower and more consistent. I kept getting readings right around 120 to 125 grams per cup.
So, What’s the Deal?
See? Big difference! That’s like 15-20 grams difference depending on how you fill the cup. In baking, that’s enough to mess things up, make your bread too dense or your cookies too dry.
Gold Medal’s own site actually says a cup is about 120 grams, which matches up pretty well with the spoon and level method. It seems that’s the way they measure it, and probably how recipe writers should be measuring it.
My takeaway? Honestly, measuring cups for flour are just kinda unreliable unless you’re super careful and know exactly how the recipe writer measured their cup. Ever since doing this little test again, I’ve pretty much switched to weighing my flour for everything important. I just look up the recipe, see if they give a weight in grams (most good ones do now), or I just use that 120-125 gram figure for Gold Medal AP flour if they only list cups. It makes my baking way more consistent, and that makes me happy. No more guessing games!
