How to measure flour? Seems simple, right? Yes, it is simple but if you're not measuring flour correctly and are skipping these easy steps there is a good chance you are putting too much flour in your baked goods! Nothing ruins a good cake or batch of cookies faster than too much flour!
Check this out:
Each of these bowls contains “1 cup” of flour. Each was measured a little differently and then weighed to show the difference.
Weight Comparison
The bowl on the left contains one cup of flour that was measured, sifted, and spooned into the measuring cup. I scraped the excess flour off with the back of a knife. Sifting your flour before spooning it into your measuring cup will give you the most accurate measurement of flour (besides simply just weighing it). This one weighs 120 grams, which according to the flour bag is the correct weight for 1 cup of flour.
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The center bowl contains 130 grams of flour. This is my shortcut method and is actually how I measure all the flour for my baked goods. While this method is not the most correct, I still consider it “proper.” But you will notice that with this method you are still getting 8% more flour (almost an extra tablespoon!).
So just know that in my recipes 1 cup of flour = 130 grams.
This is my favorite scale for weighing out food: 
The bowl on the right contains 176 grams. With this bowl, I simply dipped my measuring cup into the flour container and scooped it out. I leveled the cup off by scraping it up the side of the flour container. With this method you are getting over 46% more flour!
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So here’s how you measure flour properly:
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Step 1: Use a spoon to stir up the flour (or sift if you want the most correct measurement)—the flour compacts while it sits.
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Step 2: Take spoonfuls of flour and gently shake them into the measuring cup to keep the flour from compacting. Repeat this step until your measuring cup is overly full
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Step 3 :Take the back of a knife, and using a gentle chopping motion, evenly distribute flour across the measuring cup
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Step 4: Scrape the excess flour, again using the back of your knife, back into your flour container
originally posted 08/16/18
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Hi, would you include the four weight? I like to weigh my flour—and other ingredients too but flour is the ingredient that compacts so easily and can, indeed mess up a great recipe. Thanks Dianna & Alyssa!
I have started to measure all my flour with this shortcut method! Thank you for the great tip!
I didn't know this and I've wondered why my breads are weird....too much flour! Thanks for this very clear instruction.
Wow! I sure didn’t realize that sifting would make such s huge difference! Thank you for this information!