How to Measure Flour
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How to measure flour the right way for precise, accurate measurements and perfect bakes every time!
Have you ever followed a baking recipe, only for your sugar cookies or muffins to turn out dry, lumpy, or overly chewy? It’s possible that you followed the recipe exactly right. But you might have made one simple mistake: measuring flour the wrong way.
It might sound obvious, but in fact, the way you measure your flour can dramatically impact your final product.
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Baking is a science and the ratio of ingredients functions like chemistry. Inaccurate measurements can result in the failure of a recipe. I talk more about the importance of precise measurements in the Baking Fundamentals post.
Today I’m going to teach you everything you need to know about the best way to measure flour for even, reliable baked goods every time.
The Wrong Way to Measure Flour
It’s quite common to simply stick your measuring cup into a bin or bag of flour, level it off roughly, and dump it into your mixing bowl.
However, this method can actually be quite inaccurate. Depending on the weight and kind of flour you’re using, you’re likely to trap a lot of air in your measuring cup. Or, if you pack the flour in, you’ll add much more flour than the recipe really needs.
Flour compacts. A 1-cup measuring cup can hold much more than 130 grams of flour. 130 grams is my standard cup measurement for all-purpose flour.
When I weighed the flour that was scooped out with the measuring cup, it was a staggering 150 grams. That’s 20 grams more flour than needed.
As you can see above, the flour that was scooped weighs more (a lot more!) than the properly measured flour on the left.
Most recipes call for 2 cups of flour or more. If you were to measure 3 cups of flour using this method, you’d end up with a half cup more flour than needed.
This amount of extra flour will leave you with dry, crumbly cookie dough, cookies that don’t spread during baking, and dense or dry brownies and cakes. Plus some frustration with the recipe not turning out like it was supposed to!
The Right Way to Measure Flour
Let’s focus on all-purpose flour since 95% of all my recipes call for this flour. It’s versatile and can be used in cookies, bread, cakes, brownies, pizza dough… just about anything. You can learn more about other types of flour in my flour basics post.
When I measure all-purpose, I go off the assumption that 1 cup is equal to 130 grams. This is pretty standard, but as I stated above, it can vary with different types, brands of flour, and measuring cups.
The most accurate way to measure flour is to weigh it with a small, inexpensive kitchen scale. You can get them for around $20.
The added benefit of using a scale is you won’t have a ton of measuring cups to clean afterward.
How to measure flour using a scale
When using a scale, there is no need for measuring cups! Simply turn the scale on, place the bowl on the scale, then “tare” or “zero” it so it is not weighing the bowl.
Add the amount of flour you need. “Tare” or “zero” out the scale again then add the amount of the next ingredient. Do this for each ingredient you need to add to the mixing bowl.
How To Measure Flour Without A Scale
So what is the proper way to measure flour for baking if you don’t have a scale? You’ll still need that dry measuring cup, but you won’t use it as a scoop.
Instead, use a spoon or scoop to fluff the flour in your container and fill the measuring cup. The flour should be light and airy, not packed.
Important: the key to perfectly measuring flour is to avoid packing the flour into your measuring cup. That’s how you end up with too much flour and tough, dry baked goods.
When your measuring cup is full, use a flat surface, like the back of a butter knife, to level it off. Push the excess flour back into your flour container.
Can you guess how much the flour weighs when it’s measured this way? 130 grams! And that is going to yield the perfect recipe.
However, my cup measurements don’t necessarily weigh as much as the next baker’s. This goes for more than just flour!
If you go by weight measurements rather than cup measurements you know you’re using the exact amount that the recipe calls for.
The majority of the recipes on Baked by an Introvert include both cup and weight measurements. Use one measurement or the other! Do not mix measuring techniques as this can yield inaccurate results.
Hi, I have been struggling with this measurement problem for doing long, and finally, I have found a way. I’m truly thankful however I have one question. If one cup of flour is 130 g, does that mean any other ingredient you measure with that cup is 130 g? For example, sugar, butter, and almond flour? Because I tried macrons the other day and the meringue dough turned out runny I suspected its the cup measurement.
Hi Sharon. Different ingredients will have different weight measurements even if they are measured with 1 cup. For example, butter is heavier than flour so one cup will weigh more than 130g. One cup of butter is actually 227g. Sugar is also heavier than flour and one cup weighs 200g. My advice for macarons is to use a recipe that only calls for weight measurements, like this one. There’s less room for error.
If different flours weigh in differently, I don’t understand how the 130 grams is accurate? You also mention fluffing flour? Go into my big flour bin with a whisk & fluff it that way? Just maybe a minute or so? Thank you. Love your site.
130 grams is what 1 cup of all-purpose flour weighs and is what every recipe on my site is based on. Cake flour, whole wheat flour, and bread flour will weigh differently. My recipes reflect the weights I use and this is why I highly encourage using the weight measurements when listed. To fluff flour, you use a spoon, fork, etc and lightly fluffy it so it’s not compact in the bin. There’s no specific amount of time to do this, just loosen it.
The lessons are interesting and understanding. Now I can confidently bake without fear of failure. Thank you so much.
Thanks for the tips. They will definitely come I hand as I,a plannon on making my granddaughters wedding cake in a March. Wish me luck.
Thank you for advice I used to scoop out flour using cup, will now foĺlow your adv8ce.
I am using Gluten free all purpose flour and gluten free bake powder.
Made your muffins, lovely flavour found they were dense not soft like muffins should be.
Is there anything 8 red to add to achieve light fluffy muffins.
Thank you for advice you are giving us.
I’m not a gluten-free baker so I’m not really sure of the technicalities that go along with it. I know it’s much more challenging to get the right textures but I can’t say what to do to improve that because I just don’t know. I suggest looking at some gluten-free baking blogs and maybe see if they have muffin recipes that look good to you.
One thing I took away from Home Ec (when high schools still had that) was that we were supposed to measure flour out the spoon and knife method. So, I did. In the past year or so, I just stopped doing it. I guess because I didn’t really know why I did that except that it was the way I was taught. Now I know why and I’ll go back to that method. Thank you!
Proper technique is really so important when it comes to baking.