Hi class, welcome back to baking school. Today we are on lesson five of the
baking fundamentals course and today I want to talk to you about how to measure
everything properly for baking. Now as you may know baking is an exact science
and it's extremely important that you know how to measure your ingredients
properly. Now there are two different techniques for measuring ingredients. The
first is measuring by weight and the second is measuring by volume. Now I want
to talk about how to properly do each technique and the differences between
the two. When you're measuring by weight you're going to use a scale to measure
each ingredient to the exact weight that you need for your recipe. Now this is an
extremely accurate way to measure. When you measure by volume you're actually
using a measuring cup and filling it up to the top with your ingredient so
you're measuring it by the amount of space or the amount of volume that it
takes up in the cup. Now this can be a less accurate way to measure because
it's really easy to accidentally pack too much of an ingredient into your
measuring cup or to not fill it quite all the way to the top. Okay so let's go
ahead and start by talking about measuring by weight. Now when you measure
by weight you're going to need a kitchen scale and these are fairly inexpensive,
you can easily find one for less than $20. And when you measure by weight you
have a few different options of the units of measurement you will use. Now in
the United States we're the most familiar with the Imperial system and those units
of measurement are ounces and pounds. Now the rest of the world uses the metric
system and those units of measurement are grams and kilograms.
I'd really like to encourage you to start learning how to measure by grams
because that is the smallest form of measurement
and going to be the most accurate. To use a digital scale turn the scale on and
use the unit button to change the settings. Grams is the preferred setting
for baking. Set your bowl on the scale and then press the tare button to zero
out the scale so that the bowl is not counted in the weight then begin
measuring out your ingredient. You can see the written lesson for downloadable
charts for converting common baking ingredients from volume measurements to
weight measurements. Okay so let's go ahead and talk about measuring by
volume. Now there are also a few different ways you can measure by a
volume. With the Imperial system in the U. S. we have teaspoons, tablespoons, fluid ounces, cups, pints, quarts and gallons. Now if the metric system they have
milliliters and liters. Now remember when measuring by volume you are using a
measuring cup to fill it up to the amount that you need of your ingredient.
Now there are a few different tools you need when measuring by volume. This is a
liquid measuring cup and you want to only use this when you are measuring
liquids. And this is a dry measuring cup and you only want to use this when you
are measuring dry ingredients. Now these two units of measurement are actually
measuring exactly the same. If I filled this up with a cup of water and I poured
it into my dry measuring cup it would come right up to the top but the way
these two are designed differently it just works much better and more
accurately if you use this for measure liquid and this for measuring dry. When
you measure a dry ingredient in this, it would be very difficult to level the
ingredient off at the top and make sure that it is very accurate so you
definitely don't want to use this when measuring dry ingredients. Now these are
measuring spoons and you would use this for measuring small amounts of
ingredients like spices or extracts or anything like that. Now one thing I
really want to review is the difference between fluid ounces which is a volume
measurement and ounces which is a weight measurement. Now these two things are not
exactly the same. You might have been taught that one cup equals eight ounces.
Well it is true that one cup does equal eight fluid ounces but that does not
mean that one cup will always weigh eight ounces. Now the reason this can be
really confusing is because water, milk, melted butter and a few other liquid
ingredients actually do equal the same amount by volume and weight . So one cup
of water would equal eight ounces by weight but this is not true for most dry
ingredients and a lot of other heavier liquid ingredients like honey or
molasses or something like that. Now the example I really like to use to
illustrate this point is think about filling up a one cup measuring cup with
feathers and then a one cup measuring cup with lead. Now are these two things
going to equal the same amount by weight? Absolutely not they are the same by
volume but they are not going to weigh the same. Okay so let's talk about how to
properly use all of these tools. Now when you're measuring liquid ingredients with
your liquid measuring cup you want to fill it up to the line and set it down
on your counter and then get down at eye level with it so that you can see that
the ingredient is exactly at the line. Now when you're using dry measuring cups
you want to fill it up all the way to the top and actually overflowing a
little bit and then use knife or the back of a spoon to level it
off so that it is a very clean line on top. To measure powdery dry ingredients
like flour or powdered sugar start by stirring it and then lightly spoon it
into your measuring cup without packing it down at all.
Make sure the cup is overflowing and then use a knife to level it off. If you
are going to measure by volume, using this proper technique is extremely
important. This 1 cup of flour measured the proper way weighs 120 grams and this
next cup of flour measured by packing it into the measuring cup is weighing in at
151 grams. This difference is significant in baking. Brown sugar is the one
ingredient that you do want to lightly pack into your measuring cup before
leveling it off. When measuring things like spices or baking powder or baking
soda make sure that you also level off your measuring spoon. So that is it for
today's lesson now I want to give you your homework assignment. I'd love for
you to practice measuring flour by volume and see how accurate you can get
with it. Measure out one cup of flour using the spoon and level technique that
we showed in the video and then pour it into a bowl on a scale and see how
accurate you are. One cup of flour should weigh a hundred and twenty grams. Now you
can share your results of this assignment in our private Facebook group
where we are continuing the conversation after each lesson or you can share it on
your social media using the hashtag #BBbakingschool.
I'll see you guys next time. Bye!