Kitchen Notes: Measuring Flour

All this time I've been using the scoop+level method for measuring flour, meaning getting a cup of flour at a time from the container of flour then leveling it off with a straight edge. The alternate way, as suggested by most baking sites is to spoon the flour into the measuring cup and then level it off. And, if you are a master baker like Martha Stewart, you can just eyeball it with the scoop and shake method (no leveling off). Food Network suggests to scoop then level off dry ingredients. Local IoT app maker, Perfect Company, combines a digital scale with Bluetooth technology that walks users through guided measuring and baking steps. The rationale against the scoop+level method is that the flour gets compacted. Is an extra 20 g of flour that big of a deal?

Visually it all looks the same. Though, when weighed, it's not all the same. Today's measurements with a digital kitchen scale (100% humidity outside):

1 cup of all-purpose flour =

Sample		Scoop+Level		Spoon+Level
1		153 g		139 g
2		149 g		129 g
3		156 g		136 g

I have noticed over the years that when making cookies, I often have a lot more flour leftover in the mixing bowl; though this was more prevalent in southern California where the air is dry nearly year-round.

But, when looking at online recipes by others, the dry ingredient units vary--even from the same author.

AB		measure		suspected
sugar cookies		3 cups AP flour		volume
oatmeal cookies		16 oz old fashioned rolled oats		weight
lentil cookies		9.5 oz whole wheat pastry flour (about 2 c flour)		weight
vanilla wafers		7 oz AP flour		weight