Measuring Ingredients for Small Batch Baking
Weighing ingredients with a kitchen scale is 100% the best way to measure ingredients. All of my recipes on Midnight Bake Club are tested in grams. That's because it's the only way to make sure that a recipe comes out perfectly every time! Also, small batch recipes have less room for error, so even just a little extra flour can ruin a recipe. If you do not have a scale, please use the instructions below for measuring flour, cocoa powder, or other dry ingredients. Otherwise, your baked goods could come out dry and crumbly!
Equipment
- Kitchen scale
- Whisk
- Measuring cups
- Straight edge (butter knife, etc.)
Ingredients
- Flour, cocoa powder, or other dry ingredients
Instructions
Kitchen Scale
- First, turn on the scale and place your mixing bowl on top. Zero or tare the scale so you aren't weighing the bowl.
- Add the amount of ingredients that the recipe calls for. Make sure to zero or tare the scale in-between each ingredient!
Measuring Cups
- Start by whisking the flour until it's light, fluffy, and there are no big chunks. Flour tends to settle in bags or jars, which can make it tightly packed. You want to break that up so you don't end up with too much flour in your recipe.
- Next, spoon the fluffed flour into the measuring cup until it's overflowing. Don't pack the flour into the cup!
- Lastly, scrape a straight edge (like a butter knife or bench scraper) across the top of the measuring cup to level the flour. Again, you want to get rid of extra flour without packing it into the cup.
Notes
If you don't have a scale, you can use measuring cups in a pinch. Just keep in mind, this is not the most accurate way to measure, so you will likely end up with more or less ingredients than you need.
Do not scoop the flour straight from the bag or pack it into the measuring cup, or you will end up with dry, crumbly baked goods.
One cup of flour is around 120 grams but this varies baker-to-baker. In my kitchen, I consider one cup of flour 120 grams. But some bakers claim that one cup of flour is 125 grams or 130 grams. I've even seen one famous, not-to-be-named cooking website claim that a cup of flour is 155 grams.
I still use teaspoons for measuring small amounts of ingredients like leavening agents, spices, and vanilla extract. Since it's such a small amount, these ingredients don't need to be weighed.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!