How to Measure Flour?
Here are two methods of measuring flour. However, the real key in successful bread making is checking on the dough after a few minutes of kneading.
Last updated on June 30, 2024 – Originally posted on February 4, 2017
Wondering how to measure flour? Check out two methods, weighing flour versus scooping flour. Each method has pros and cons.
Measuring Flour by Weight on Scale
This is the most accurate method of measuring flour. However, it’s not as straightforward as you would think.
Different brands of flour can have different weights. This is why it’s critical to check on the dough a few minutes after it starts to knead. Add water or flour if needed.
When a weight is shown for any type of flour on my site, the amount given is an average weight for flour of that type. Your flour weight may vary.
Be sure to look at the dough after five or ten minutes of kneading. Open the bread machine and look at the dough. It should be a smooth, round ball. If it’s too dry add liquid a teaspoon at a time until it looks right. If it looks too wet, add flour a tablespoon at a time until it looks right.
Here’s an example of what your dough should look like.
Scoop and Sweep Four to Measure Flour by Volume
This is the method that I use. I find it easier and it works well for me.
As someone who makes a lot of bread, I buy flour in bulk. Then, I “fluff” the flour by pouring the flour from the bag into a large container.
The flour is fluffed a second time. This happens when I scoop the flour out of the large container into the flour canister that lives on my kitchen counter.
This “fluffing” or unpacking the flour is important. If this step is skipped you may accidentally add too much flour to the recipe.
Again, I fluff the flour by moving it into different flour containers twice. What if you don’t need to move the flour around into different containers? Another method you can use is to use a spoon or fork to fluff the flour right in your flour container. You can also put the flour into a bowl and fluff it there.
Note that flour will settle after a time. So you may need to fluff it again if too much time has gone by.
What happens if you skip this step? You can get dense, short loaves of bread. Or you may see what I call a hippo loaf.
See the shape? Note that hippo loaves can also be created by making a small loaf of bread in a large bread pan. For instance, I’d expect a one-pound loaf of bread made in a two-pound machine to have this shape. The bread tastes fine, but the loaf has a distinct shape.
Use What Works for You
There really is no right or wrong way to measure flour. Do what feels easy and right for you.
However, it is very important to check on your dough a few minutes after the kneading starts. That will take care of most of your problems.
Also watch out for dense, short loaves of bread. That’s a sign of too much flour in the dough.
Do you have a chart to reference the weights of the various flours and other ingredients used in your recipes? Like Gary and
Rick’s comments above, I started weighing everything, even the liquids in my recipes. All my recipes, not just bread! I’ve found that recipes I’ve had problems with previously are working out much better using weights.
I’m using a couple different charts, but they can get a bit cumbersome, totaling 16 pages for baking ingredients! Very thorough though, breaking it down by different flour, grains, etc.
Thank you for this post!
I have some software that will automatically convert the amounts in the recipes from US customary to metric. Judging by how it handled the weights on the Applesauce Bread Recipe, it looks like it is giving different weights for different types of flour.
So here is my concern with using your recipes. I have a Zo also… If your recipes were created using the Scoop and Sweep method but I weigh the ingredients instead won’t the flour be off? Do I also need to use the scoop and sweep if I am using one of your recipes? I’m just trying to be the most accurate for the recipe I am using…Thanks for the help!
This is a great question. My impression is that most folks that weigh their flour are able to use the recipes as is. However, I’d advise that you try making one of the recipes and weighing the ingredients just like you always do. Be sure to look at the dough after 5 or 10 minutes to see how it’s doing. Then you’ll know if it’s okay to follow the directions as is.
Hi Marsha
I posted this comment earlier, not sure where but this is where I intended it to be.
After not being completely successful after the first two loaves I started researching dry measuring cups. One site showed a cup with
“1 cup/240ml , my cup has 250ml. After measuring 4 cups of flour that would be quite a difference.
What does your cup equal?
Thanks for all the help,really enjoy the site.
Great question! 240 ml.
As Someone who gets consistently inconsistent results using measuring cups and spoons I committed to weighing and am waiting on my scale to show up. The Ozari Pronto scale can be had for under ten dollars, tests as very accurate and is rated a Best Buy at America’s Test Kitchen. For less than ten bucks I can’t see any reason to not try weighing.
The problem with scooping flour and eyeballing liquids is it can take so very little in either direction to screw up a bread. All it takes is a couple tablespoons too much water to end up with a loaf with a blown out and pancaked top. Personally I’m at the point in my bread making career that I’m more than willing to take a couple extra minutes (if that) to weigh ingredients in order to get consistent results. Rather than having to hover over the machine poking and prodding the dough ball throughout the knead cycles to check and adjust if it’s too wet or too dry.
We’ll see…
Follow up:
Having turned out a half dozen loaves now by weighing ingredients – I’m a believer.
1, 1.5, 2 pound loaves, white, wheat, cheese even – all good. I’m getting consistent results with no problem loaves. The dough balls are more elastic, the loaves have a nice domed top, the texture and crumb have improved. No collapsed tops. I haven’t had to tweak any of the dough balls by adding extra water or flour during the knead cycles. Not once.
What was the problem?
Just like Gary I found that scooping – no matter if I fluffed the flour and was carefully placing it into a measure with a spoon – was putting extra flour in the mix. When I tested them on the newly acquired scale my Kitchen Aid measures using the scooping method were adding an extra 17 grams of flour per cup – or 14% too much. That may not matter for other cooking but bread is a fickle mistress and 14% too much flour or water is never a good thing.
Do you need to weigh everything? No – the big culprits seem to be the flour and the water. And other substantial ingredients like a cup of shredded cheese etc. when used. The KAF website has a huge listing of almost any bread ingredient you could think of that converts cups to ounces to grams – huge help.
I firmly believe now if bread machine manufacturers pushed weighing ingredients that over 90% of the complaints and problems reported about Bread Behaving Badly would be vanquished. Heck, they should include a scale with every machine sold.
That 10 buck electronic scale was the best thing I have bought for my kitchen in a long time. I still do a ‘lil happy dance every time I break it out.
What does KAF Stand for?????????
I did a weight comparison, so I could adjust the recipes.
The scoop and level method (as I did it) came out at about 140 grams per cup of bread flour, vs. the 120 grams per cup as printed on the bag. This is about 17% more than the weight method.
I expected the difference because the scoop and level compresses the flour as it is scooped, so it should be heavier. I just did not know how much heavier it would be.
Good information! Thanks for sharing!
I use the weight method, as for me that is easier.
I understand that one is supposed to “fluff” the flour, before measuring. I did not want the hassle and mess of using a sifter to fluff the flour. I remember how messy it was when my mother sifted flour when she baked. So taking the seemingly easy way out, I put a bowl on a digital scale, zero the scale, then start scooping until I get to the weight I want.
The only wrinkle is that not all flour weighs the same. Bread and all-purpose is different than wheat, which is different than corn meal. So I have to keep track of the flour that is called for in the recipe. But once I write the weight into my recipe, it is done.
BTW, I also now weigh my water. I have 4 different measuring cups, and 1 cup of water in any one cup does not measure 1 cup in the other 3 cups. argh No wonder I could not get my bread to be consistent.