Favorite Baking Tools: Kitchen Scale by Joanne

While most American baking recipes don’t require you to have a kitchen scale, I absolutely love having one. I use it every single time I bake.

The most obvious reason that may come to mind for having a scale is that it’s more precise to weigh than measure. But there are other reasons too! It’s easier, saves times, and makes for less dishes, too.

Armed with these points and having just checked that a well-rated kitchen scale only costs $10—$15 these days, I’m hoping to convince you that a kitchen scale belongs in your kitchen too.

 
 

Let’s start with the biggest reason to use a scale, which is that it’s more precise to measure by weight than to measure by scooping.

You can set any bowl or vessel onto the scale, and zero set the scale to start. I love how easy it is to grab any bowl of any kind.

 
 

Then start pouring the ingredient you want to measure into the bowl, until the scale reads out to the amount needed. In my bowl above I’ve got a cup of flour, which is 140 grams.

 
 

Or 5 ounces!

I really love not having to fluff and aerate the flour in the container, fill the measuring cup, level it off with a flat surface, and repeat. It’s so much easier to pour or scoop the flour onto the scale to get the amount I need.

 
 

Flour is often kept in big containers, but ingredients like cocoa powder are often kept in smaller containers, and it can be difficult and messy to try to measure with cups in these situations. A quarter cup measure, pictured above, is usually the largest cup I can get inside the cocoa container, so measuring cocoa by weight is how I like to do it.

 
 

Using a scale also results in less dishes! When you weigh your ingredients, the only thing you dirty is a bowl, and maybe a spoon for scooping if you don’t want to pour. The alternative is ending up with a few dirty measuring cups, because you don’t want to put the cocoa powder measuring cup into your flour jar or into your sugar jar.

It may not seem like a big deal, but not having to put a set of measuring cups into the dishwasher definitely saves space, and it’s an extra bonus to the advantages above.

So there you have it, a few of the reasons I love having a scale in my kitchen!

 
 

Sometimes recipes will give you exact amounts for flour, cocoa powder, confectioner’s sugar, etc, but sometimes the recipes don’t. In those cases, here are the approximate weights that I use for common baking ingredients:

 
1 cup all-purpose flour = 5 ounces = 140 grams
1 cup cocoa powder = 3.5 ounces = 100 grams
1 cup granulated sugar = 7 ounces = 200 grams
1 cup confectioner’s sugar = 4 ounces = 115 grams

 
And one final note on these guidelines, since there is sometimes disagreement over measurements: When I measured my brand of flour with the aerate, scoop, and level method, I found 1 cup to equal 5 ounces, and that became my standard. America’s Test Kitchen also goes by the standard that 1 cup of all-purpose flour is 5 ounces. However, I’ve seen others say 1 cup is 4.5 ounces, or even 4.25, so if you’re unsure, I suggest weighing the brand you use with your own scoop test, and making your own conversions.

Happy baking!