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flour/sugar weight conversion

Recipe by
Andy Anderson !
Wichita, KS

When cooking; especially when you’re baking, working with the proper amounts of ingredients is very important, in the test kitchen, and in my personal kitchen, I always measure by weight. Here’s a list of the most commonly used flours, and sugars… some definitions, and weight conversions for you. Most of this information can be found by sifting through the Internet, but since I have it on file, I thought I would share it with you. Remember that flours vary by manufacturer, and this is the list we used at the Culinary Institute.

yield serving(s)
method No-Cook or Other

Ingredients For flour/sugar weight conversion

  • various flours
  • various sugars
  • that's about it...

How To Make flour/sugar weight conversion

  • 1
    All-Purpose Flour 1 cup - 4 1/4oz - 120.5g A combination of hard and soft wheat is milled to produce all-purpose flour. The resulting medium protein content (between 9% and 12%) offers just the right balance of strength and tenderness for the everyday baker to make chewy breads, delicate tarts and everything in between.
  • 2
    Artisan flour 1 cup - 4 1/4oz - 120.5g Used for high quality breads and baked goods, including baguettes, rustic country bread and donut bases. It contains, wheat flour enriched (niacin, reduced iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), malted barley flour, and ascorbic acid added as a dough conditioner. Ingredients vary with manufacturer.
  • 3
    Bread flour 1 cup - 4 1/4 - 120.5g Bread flour is a high protein flour that is intended to be used in yeast breads and designed to give you a better result in those breads than you would get with another type of flour. The high protein content means that the flour has more gluten in it. The increased amount of gluten allows doughs made with bread flour to be extremely elastic, and that elasticity leads to a lighter and chewier yeast bread.
  • 4
    Cake flour 1 cup - 4oz - 113.5g Cake flour has a 6-8% protein content and is made from soft wheat flour. It is chlorinated to further break down the strength of the gluten and is smooth and velvety in texture
  • 5
    Durum (Semolina) flour 1 cup - 4 3/8oz - 124g Durum flour - comes from durum wheat, which is a very hard high gluten variety. It is used commercially for the manufacture of dried pasta. Many varieties of dried pasta list their ingredients as durum flour or durum wheat semolina (in pasta terms it's the same thing). Durum wheat can be added to any strong flour to bump up the strength.

  • 6
    Whole wheat flour 1 cup - 3 7/8oz - 109.8g The word "whole" refers to the fact that all of the grain (bran, germ, and endosperm) is used and nothing is lost in the process of making the flour. Because the whole flour contains the remains of all of the grain, it has a textured, brownish appearance. Whole-wheat flour will make your baked products denser and heavier than all- purpose flour does. Substituting whole-wheat flour for white flour takes a little experimentation, but you will almost always be successful if you use ¾ cup of whole wheat flour to replace 1 cup of all-purpose flour.
  • 7
    Pastry Flour 1 cup - 4oz - 113.5g Pastry flour is 8% to 9% protein, and lets you create baked goods with a little more body and texture than cake flour, but still with the tenderness one associates with a well-made biscuit or pastry.
  • 8
    Sugar, granulated white 1 cup - 7oz - 198.5g Granulated sugar is white refined sugar, made by dissolving and purifying raw sugar then drying it to prevent clumping. This is the sugar we use most at home. A permanent feature of kitchens around the globe; it’s also really useful for making sweets and small cakes, including fruit jelly, fruit sorbets, candied fruit, crystallized fruit, glacé fruit, caramel, nougat, swiss roll, shortbread and sponge cakes. It’s popular with lovers of fruit in syrup, fruit salads and purées, and jams.
  • 9
    Sugar, confectioners’, unsifted 1 cup - 4oz - 113.5g Also known as powdered sugar or 10X sugar, confectioners' sugar is easily dissolved in liquid, which makes it ideally suited for making icings and frostings. Additionally, confectioners' sugar can be used decoratively by lightly dusting it over desserts, baked items and even fruit. The word confectioner means someone who makes candies and other sweets, thus confectioners' sugar is widely used in candy making and baking.
  • 10
    Sugar, dark or light brown, packed 1 cup - 7 ½ - 212.5 Brown sugar is white sugar that has had a small amount of molasses added to it. The molasses gives it a richer, deeper flavor than white sugar and also makes the sugar very moist. Dark brown sugar has a very strong molasses flavor, while light brown sugar is a little drier and has a much milder flavor. Recipes don’t usually specify because the different types of brown sugars are interchangeable and will perform the same way in just about every cookie, cake, bread or other recipe that they’re included in. When recipes do make a recommendation for dark brown over light brown sugar, it’s not because of the way that the sugars function, but because of the flavors that they impart in a recipe.
  • 11
    Caster sugar 1 cup - 8oz - 225g Caster sugar is made by crushing and sifting granulated white sugar, and is also called fine granulated sugar. It’s an essential ingredient in desserts and pastries. It is used to make cakes and dessert pastry and mixtures (shortcrust, sugar crust, choux, brioche, waffle and pancake) and creams (custard, confectioner’s custard, ice-cream), desserts with cream (custard tart, charlotte, bavarois, etc.) and dairy products (yoghurts, fromage blanc, etc.), and countless classic desserts. It’s also great in sweet and sour recipes.


Chef’s tip: sprinkle Norwegian omelettes and fruit with a little sugar before being flambéed to add a sweet, caramelised note that marries perfectly with the alcohol. It’s perfect for sweetening dairy products. To obtain a white, frothy mixture when adding sugar to egg yolks, use caster sugar. By sprinkling the sugar gradually over the egg yolks, it dissolves more quickly and doesn’t stick together. It’s perfect for making sponge cakes and custards.


 Caster sugar is a favorite in éclairs, pound cake, madeleine, saint-émilion, logs, etc. 


 Caster sugar works well in cream-based desserts, ice-creams and granitas.


 Sweet soufflés and omelet’s enjoy greater body and consistency with a little sugar. To give more flavor to cold drinks such as milk shakes, lemon juices or sangria, caster sugar is perfect because it dissolves immediately, whatever the temperature of the drink.
  • 12
    Chef's Note: Just remember that a lot of things influence the weight of ingredients; including the manufacturer. These are presented only as general guidelines.
  • 13
    Keep the faith, and keep cooking.
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