Today’s Post
It’s been a while since we’ve shared some baking tips with you, and today’s topic is one we’ve been wanting to write about for quite some time. As you’ve probably noticed if you’ve tried any of our recipes, we share both metric and US customary units. This is because we prefer metric measurements, and we’ll explain why later in this post, but we also know that a lot of our American audience prefers to use cup measurements. Everyone knows that precision is paramount in baking, as inaccurate quantities of key ingredients like flour, butter, sugar, eggs, etc. can influence the taste, texture, or look of the baked good. So, we wanted to share with you our best tips for measuring, especially if you tend to use cups instead of a scale!
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1. Use a scale instead of cups, please!
Our first tip is very simple – if you’re using cups to measure, just switch to a scale and measure by weight. It’s so much more accurate. Not only does this mean you will be able to replicate a recipe more accurately, but it also means that if you make that recipe again, it will turn out the same every time. That’s because it’s always accurate to measure by weight, as opposed to cups, which rely on you measuring exactly like the person creating the recipe did. It also takes up far less space in your kitchen to have an electronic scale, so that’s a bonus. As I mentioned above, we always develop our recipes by weight, so we recommend getting a scale. We’ve included a link to the one we’ve been using for many years right below. However, if you want to stick with your cups, carry on reading and you can learn a few tips to measure accurately with them.
2. Read the recipe carefully before you start baking
This may be an obvious tip but it’s something we even forget sometimes. If you want accurate measurements, read through the recipe carefully before you start following it! If you’re very quickly reading while measuring, you might slip up and see a “tbsp” instead of a “tsp.” God knows we’ve all been the victim of that confusion and ended up with a too salty/spicy/cinnamon-y end result. Sometimes, it might not make a huge difference, especially in something like bread where if you add too much water, you can usually adjust by adding more flour. However, if you add too much of a key ingredient like flour or eggs to a cake or cookies, it can entirely alter the taste and texture of the baked good. Read through the recipe carefully two or three times before you start, and this will help you avoid measurement blunders.
3. If you do use cups, make sure you have both liquid and dry ingredient measuring cups
A few times, I’ve been scrolling on TikTok and have come across a video of someone trying to bake something. But once they start putting dry ingredients into a liquid measuring cup, I have to cringe! I know that they might not know that there’s a difference, which is fair enough. But if you like to bake, you should make sure you are using the correct equipment to measure your ingredients. Anything that’s runny and can be poured should be measured in a liquid measuring cup, and you should always bend down to check at eye level that the bottom of the meniscus touches the correct number on the cup. Dry ingredients should be measured with dry measuring cups, and you should make sure to level it off so that any extra is not added into the mixture.
4. Adjust your measuring method based on the ingredient
Now, when it comes to different dry ingredients, you should use different methods depending on the type of ingredient. Finely ground dry ingredients, such as flour and powdered sugar, should be fluffed up before you dip the cup into them to measure. Then, you should level them and brush the extra back into the container. Brown sugar, on the other hand, is quite sticky and somewhere in between a dry and wet ingredient, but it should always be packed into the cup measurement and measured in this way. This will give you the most accurate outcome, as these ways of measuring are commonly followed and if a recipe is developed using these methods, it should also be produced using them to ensure the best outcome. If you’re unsure of how to measure an ingredient, you can always Google it!
5. Be precise with the most essential ingredients
When it comes to baking, although precision and accuracy are essential, there are some ingredients that are more important than others. Those that contribute largely to taste or texture, like flour, eggs, sugar, milk, etc., are very important to measure correctly. Something like an add-in, on the other hand, is a more flexible ingredient. Take a chocolate chip cookie, for example. You should never add more eggs, flour, or butter than a recipe calls for, but you can certainly add more or less chocolate. You can also customize the add-ins to your preferences, perhaps also adding chopped nuts, pretzel pieces, or candy. In our recipes, we will usually include a section of the blog post that tells you which ingredients you can change if you want to and which you can’t.
Thanks for reading!
Thanks for reading today’s post. We hope it was informative and could give you some tips for when you’re next in the kitchen whipping up a cake or loaf of bread. If you have any questions about the information that we’ve explained here, feel free to let us know in the comments or send us an email. Remember – baking takes practice, and the same goes for getting the measuring methods right. So if you mess something up, don’t worry. Try to figure out where it went wrong and then you’ll know what to change for next time.
