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Flour measurements

Gloria J Martin <ggmartin2@juno.com>
Mon, 13 Sep 2004 08:23:27 -0500
v104.n041.10
I do not believe you can just "generalize" and say "4 1/2 oz. is equal to 1 
cup".

A lot depends on the type of flour you are measuring---is it whole grain or 
plain white? Is it plain white or bread flour white? Many of the bread 
baking cook books will have an information chapter that explains just what 
weight of flour the author is basing the recipes in the book on.

One respected author says 5 1/2 ounces of flour is equal to 1 cup, Many 
flour sacks say 4 oz. of flour is equal to 1 cup. I haven't checked lately, 
but Cuisinarts used to say 5 oz. was the weight to base their recipes on. 
As I make most of my bread in the Cuisinart, I have had good success using 
5 ounces of flour per cup. I have also used 5 oz. as the standard for the 
cup measurement in my bread machine (West Bend) and had good success.
When I make a sweet roll or bread, I usually weight the flour in at 4 oz. 
per cup as I know I want a softer dough.

I don't think weighing takes the fun away from baking---instead it helps 
give assurance that the dough will turn out correctly.

I taught bread baking classes for many years and turned out many successful 
bakers. I would repeat that I think it is most important to read in the 
introduction of the particular book you are getting the recipe from to see 
just what the author means by 1 cup.

Gloria Martin
ggmartin2@juno.com