If you're starting to really get into baking, treat yourself to an electronic scale. This may seem like a superfluous addition to your kitchen equipment at first, but trust us - it will be your best friend before you can say "cupcake"!
If you caught Michael Ruhlman talking about his new book Ratio on Good Food this past week, you know that baking is all about weight ratios. Increase the sugar by more than a few grams without compensating the other ingredients and it can affect your end product, sometimes for the better...sometimes for the worse. If you use a scale, you know that you're spot on.
Weights have been standard in European cookbooks for years, and American cookbooks are finally starting to catch on. Once you're in the habit, we actually think it's easier and faster to weigh out our ingredients. We can simply scoop and weigh without needing to carefully level off measuring cups or question whether we've already added that third cup of flour.
There are lots and lots of scales out there and most are just fine for home-baking purposes. Look for ones that have buttons for on/off/tare and a way to toggle between grams and ounces. It's also good to make sure the bed of the scale will accommodate a large mixing bowl.
We've been happy with our basic $20 scale from Polder for several years now and would definitely recommend it. Cook's Illustrated also recently gave top points to Oxo's food scale.
Do you use a scale for baking?
Related: Five Essential Baking Tools: Pans
(Image: Emma Christensen for the Kitchn)
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I always use a scale for any type of cooking! I use to have one that wasn't electronic and I was never good at reading those things.
I'm on Weight Watchers, so a scale is part of my basic stand-by's in the kitchen.
Mikeinbrooklyn, I, as well, am on WW. I have lost my last 20 pounds because of that thing. I love my scale. I use it not only for me, but for my 22-month-old son as well. I am having feeding problems with him, and measuring out his food to make sure he is getting enough every day is less of a challenge with a scale. That way, I am not left wondering.
I agree, it's much easier and more reliable.
I have a scale, but most of my cookbooks and recipes don't give weights, so I haven't made much use of it.
I got a scale a few months ago, and the first time I used it i loved it, but all the recipes I use don't give weights. Sometimes I try to convert the recipe, but it seems to questionable.
I've been using scales for years and I couldn't imagine going back to cups. In Aust recipes have traditional used a hyrid system of the US - British convention were we measure butter by weight, liquid in mls and dry goods in cups.
For years, I wondered how on earth Americans measured a cup of butter til I found out your butter comes in sticks!
I've converted most of my recipes to weight now. I have a list on the fridge of ingredient cup to weight conversions. I based my off this http://www.superfoodideas.com.au/images/sfi-conversion-card.pdf
You quickly learn that a cup of flour is 150g, caster sugar 220g etc. I pencil it in the books for next time. It also makes is a lot easier to increase/decrease quantities accurately.
I spent a month last year in a sublet apartment with a bare-bones kitchen (like, one pot, one pan, a cutting board, a cookie sheet, and a steak knife) and my kitchen scale was one of the few things I missed. (Obviously I really wanted a chef's knife, and I also missed my immersion blender.)
I use it for baking, of course. It's also key for substituting in other recipes; if I buy a lot of Roma tomatoes at the farmer's market and my recipe calls for 2 lbs (or x number of) regular tomatoes, I am going to have to weigh them. Same for subbing fresh produce for canned.
Also, I knit and the ability to weigh yarn is absolutely key!
I have an Escali Pana scale that is preprogrammed with weights for about 100 ingredients. So I can put in the code for parmesan cheese and it will tell me when I have 1/2 cup. It also measures in lbs, ozs, and grams in 1 gm. increments. It's my most loved kitchen item. BTW, I received Ratio last weekend and I love it.
Can't live without it. It's so important when measuring ingredients like flour. A cup of flour can differ so much in weight depending how packed in it is.