My grandma's "too much flour" rule

My grandma always said to never dump flour straight into the mixing bowl from the bag, she said it packs too tight and messes up the ratio. I ignored her for years until my biscuits came out like hockey pucks three times in a row last month. Anyone else find that scooping and leveling really makes that much of a difference?

3 comments

3 Comments

william_garcia5d ago

Bought a kitchen scale after my third batch of sad cookies and never looked back. Scooping and leveling is legit, grandma knew what she was talking about.

lindag335d ago

Scooping and leveling is basically the mullet of baking - party on top (the flour), business underneath (the science). @william_garcia, you're one sad cookie experiment away from becoming a kitchen scale evangelist (I'm picturing little pamphlets and everything). At least now your cookies can be consistently terrible instead of a wild guessing game, right?

rose_reed5d ago

My grandma had this old Pyrex measuring cup with the paint half worn off, and she used it for flour for like 40 years. She always tapped the side of it with a butter knife three times before leveling it off. Last Thanksgiving I tried her exact method and my pie crust came out flaky for the first time ever. My mom walked in and said "oh good you finally learned to listen to your grandmother" like I was five years old. Now I keep that beat up measuring cup on my counter as a reminder that old people sometimes know what they're talking about. The biscuits thing though, I still have to weigh my flour for those because volume measuring never works right with them.