As promised in my last post, I’m going to discuss how to convert any recipe measurements from cups to grams. This will help you tremendously with gluten-free baking. It will free you up in flour substitutions as you can change the ratio of gluten-free flours as long as they add up to the same weight of flour overall.
Example: I have an almond tortilla recipe (to be posted later) that I make that requires both tapioca and arrowroot flour. So if I run short of one, I can substitute the other easily as long as the total weight remains the same. Tapioca and arrowroot have very similar but not identical properties. From experience with this recipe, I know I can make the substitution in a pinch. I could not substitute chickpea flour for tapioca flour. Their properties are very different. This is a very brief example for a much more complex, later discussion.
The missing piece of the puzzle is how do you find out how much each flour weighs. They’re all different densities so one cup of chickpea flour does not weigh the same as one cup of tapioca flour. Sorry it’s not that easy. The manufacturers do help us out though. It’s right on the nutritional facts panel on the package. They provide the serving size in both conventional and metric. That is our baking rosetta stone. 🙂
Here’s where the math comes in. You’ll have to figure out how many servings (according to the package) are needed for your recipe then multiple by the grams listed per serving.
Example: For this package of gluten-free flour mix, one serving is 2 tablespoons. If your recipe calls for 1/2 cup of gluten-free flour, you can look at the downloadable chart below and tell that you need 8 tablespoons which is 4 servings. 4 servings multiplied by 28 grams per serving equals 112 grams. So for this recipe, you know that 1/2 cup of my flour is equivalent to 112 grams.
That’s not so hard! Now you can quickly convert any recipe you have to grams and take advantage of using a scale to measure out your ingredients. You’re one step closer to modifying (and dare I say it, creating) your gluten-free recipes with the confidence of a professional chef!
I have created a handy downloadable chart of measurement equivalents for you. Download Measurement Chart (PDF)
Note: If you buy your flours in bulk, you can still find the cups to grams equivalents. You can use any number of websites that have already figured it out. Traditional Oven is quite popular. They have great variety of flours listed, including all purpose and whole wheat flours—very helpful for converting a conventional recipe over to gluten-free.
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