Why Use Gram (Weight) Measurements to Bake Instead of Cups (Volume)
There are three reasons you want to bake by weight:- Consistency
- Individuality
- Only have to measure once
Watch the Video: Why Bake with Weight Measurements?
If you can’t view the video above, click 3 Reasons You Might Want to Buy a Kitchen Scale and Bake by Weight to see it directly on YouTube.
Read: Why Bake by Weight? (& Some Challenges)
Baking by Weight Creates Consistency
When you measure flour by volume, it can be affected by many outside factors:- coarseness of flour
- humidity
- settling of flour
- climate, elevation, etc. (even your own climate in winter vs. summer!)
You Have Individual Control when you Bake with Weights
Control freaks and Type A bakers, this is for you! Measuring by weight ensures that your recipe will come out perfectly every single time. Changes in temperature or humidity won’t affect your bread — and when you get the hang of it, you can make notes on your recipes to make them work exactly how you like it.Mockmill has a great offer for Kitchen Stewardship® readers!
- Free US shipping
- Full 6-year warranty
- Info/ebook about freshly milling grain and recipes
Click over to Mockmill using this link for the free gifts.
Measure Once, Save Dishes
When you’re milling freshly ground grain, measuring by weight means that all you have to do is measure the weight of the whole grain, then grind them and use without having to remeasure after you have ground the flour. You don’t even need to touch a measuring cup! Because of these three reasons, it is really nice to be able to bake by weight. BUT – I mentioned I had problems. If a recipe is already using grams, you’re golden, Easy peasy, no thinking required. The problem I have found is converting some of my family favorites from measurements to weights (or any recipe that uses volume measurements in cups – which is many of them out there!).Challenges in Converting Recipes in Cups to Grams
The hardest part about switching to weight is that a simple search online yields a huge variation in what the conversions from measurements to weights really are.When I first started testing out baking by weight, I was imagining doing a video for you guys where I would say to my phone, “Ok Google!” and ask the weight of a kind of flour, then be off and running with my recipe. It kind of did work that way at first. Then I discovered that asking Google the same question two different ways gives me two different answers! When I said:“Ok Google, how much does one cup whole wheat flour weigh?”
Google’s answer was 4 and 1/4 oz or 120 grams. But if I phrased it:“Ok Google, how many grams are in one cup whole wheat flour?”
Google’s answer was 129.60 grams, plus a bunch of crazy gobbledygook.
How can the same question get you such differing answers? Which is the correct amount to use? I found whole wheat flour weight answers ranging from 113-157 grams!This is why knowing what the recipe should look like is so important – as is reading the rest of this post for better suggestions on how to convert your recipes from cups to grams! 😉
I guess I lucked out the first time, when Google told me 120 grams is the right amount for a cup of whole wheat flour. I also did well with einkorn and spelt…and then I tried a NEW recipe for biscuits that used whole wheat pastry flour. King Arthur, usually an awesome resource, totally led me astray! 🙁
Here’s how it went down, Instagram story style – big thanks to my 9-year-old daughter for being a good sport and practicing her kitchen skills that she learned in our online cooking class for kids:Watch the Video: How to Use Weight Measurements if Your Recipe is in Cups
If you can’t view the video above, click How to Figure out Grams of Flour in One Cup to see it directly on YouTube.
Read: Translating Recipes From Cups to Grams
As I explained earlier, a simple Google search found that there really was no consistent weight for a measurement of whole wheat flour. So what are your options? First, before you jump in of course you need a kitchen scale to do this. 😉- The exact scale I have is a little different now on Amazon, but this one by the same brand looks more similar (and another color might be less expensive, worth checking)
- Here’s a better one others recommend
- But if you want to say super budget-friendly, here are a few that look like they’d get the job done: Simple Taste, Lucky Stone, 1byone
- The big difference to look for is how small the measurements get – if you want to be able to measure spices and truly never touch a measuring spoon or cup, you’ll need 0.1 gram increments. For me, I just measure the big stuff and 1g increments are plenty.
1. Use the Average Weight of Flour as a Best Guess
You could take the most common answer found online and call that good. I tried this and used 120 grams as my per cup conversion for whole wheat flour. Most of my recipes turned out, but with other flours and the same method, I had more trouble as you saw above. So it’s not perfect, but if you’re just baking with AP or whole wheat flour, you will have decent success.2. Guess and Check
You could try to convert the recipes yourself through guess and test or trial and error.This will only work well though if it is a recipe you are already familiar with and know what the textures should be like. The guess and check method means you would start with the best guess from the Internet (low end of range), then see if it looks right. As long as it’s a recipe that you are familiar with AND you can add more flour, you can weigh out a bit more, add it, examine, etc. until you have enough.3. Weigh Your Own & Make a Chart
The best way that I found was to simply measure my own cup of flour, weigh it, and use that in my recipe. I could still usually adjust my recipes to add more flour accordingly, but if it worked, I’d write that down as “my” per-cup weight and use the number of grams in other recipes. In the video, I demonstrated the variance. Using my Mockmill, I measured 120 grams of hard red winter wheat whole berries just to see how close it came out to be one cup in measurements. I watched in awe as my one cup measuring cup filled to overflowing in a matter of minutes. Whoa! How much “too much” was the Internet’s best guess for me? I “snowplowed it flat”, as we teach our kids in the Kids Cook Real Food eCourse, so that I had what would normally be considered one cup of flour leveled. The amount that was over my one cup was a full 15 grams! So in my house, one cup of whole wheat flour should really be more like 105 grams – and yet, my baked goods with 120 grams were turning out ok. To be the most accurate, I’d recommend measuring the flour in different ways (scooping vs. milling directly) and doing it at least twice. Then the first few times you use your own new personal measurement, watch your baked goods carefully to confirm your weight. You may have to tweak it if things aren’t looking right!Related: Grain mill expert Paul Lebeau says to simply make your recipe with measurements, then weigh each one and write it down. Then it’s right for YOU for sure!Printable Chart of Grain Weights in Grams
Do you bake with measuring cups or a scale? Are you willing to try the scale thing or did I scare you off?
More Grain Grinding Challenge Series Posts
The Grinding Challenge Series is getting me to use my Mockmill grain mill! Here’s what we’re covering:
- Intro to the challenge and a video of setting up the Mockmill for the first time
- How to Translate Whole Wheat Recipe to Einkorn (and an interview with an einkorn farmer)
- Bio-Individuality – why it’s both the new face of health and the genesis of this whole project
- How to Translate Baking Recipes to Weights
- Why Baking with Weights is the Best for Kids
- Testing Pizza Dough with Freshly Milled Grain: Whole Wheat, Einkorn, Gluten-free (whole grain and not-whole-grain)
- Interview with a Master Gluten-free Baker
- Testing Tortillas with Freshly Milled Grain: Whole Wheat, Einkorn, Gluten-free
- Why Mill Your Own Gluten-free Grains?
- How to Make a Gluten-free Sourdough Starter
- Whole Grain, Gum-Free Gluten-free Flour Blend (& a bit on whether xanthan gum is bad for you)
- Interview with a Grain Milling Expert
- The Official Kitchen Stewardship® Mockmill Review
Plus where to find einkorn and unlock your special offer on the Mockmill HERE.
Recipes We’ve Worked on in the Series:
- Spelt Banana Muffins
- Einkorn Applesauce Muffins (with peanut butter variation)
- 100% Whole Grain Gluten-free Tortillas
- Whole Wheat Pizza
- Crispy Crust Gluten-Free Pizza (amazing!)
- Einkorn Pizza Dough
- 100% Whole Grain Gluten-Free Pizza Crusts (no gum!)
- How to Make a Gluten-Free Sourdough Starter
Don’t worry, if you don’t have a grain mill or couldn’t imagine yourself grinding grain yourself, I’ll be sure to address when any of these CAN’T be done with commercial flour. Usually, recipes are very compatible!
I like the scale because it’s both easier and more accurate – how can anyone not love that?
To convert to weights what I do is take the info from the nutrition label, because they usually do both weight and volume. So, if it says serving size 2tbsp (14g), I just do the math to figure out that 1cup is 112g and try that. But if a different brand says 2tbsp (18g) then I know that 1 cup weighs 144g, so I’m going to get a different result if I keep the weight measurement.
We have a bunch of food allergies, and are now on the GAPS diet to try to heal those, so we have to make things “everything-free” over here, so we’re not measuring grains, but things like coconut flour, cocoa powder, etc. So what I do is find a recipe that looks feasible, figure out what I need to substitute, and then write my own version that I work from, keeping track of the changes I make when I make them. I try to stick with the gram measurement because it helps minimize the variables I’m working with.