Last week we talked about sifting flour. This week, there’s another important thing to note about measuring flour and that’s how you get it into the measuring cup in the first place.

For the same reason you sift the flour before measuring it, you should also spoon your flour into a measuring cup instead of scooping it out of your bag or container. The practice of scooping flour out of the container compacts the flour and gives you more than is necessary. For more accurate flour measurements, you should follow these steps (complete with pictures):

1.) Use a large spoon to get flour from the container.
2.) Gently drop flour from the spoon into your measuring cup until the cup is overfull.
3.) Do not shake it or press down on the flour (this compacts it).









4.) Use a butter knife or any straight kitchen utensil to level off the flour.