Question for keen bakers

I just baked some tartlets from an Australian recipe and it called for grams AND cups!!!!  That's a first for me.  The recipe measured the butter in grams and the other solid and wet ingredients in cups.  It also gave the ounces and fluid ounces equivalent.  The tartlets turned out delicious though, so no problem there!  I'll post it on my new food blog tonight!

June

Watch out for those Aussies! I have an Australian cookbook, which points out somewhere in the fine print that their tablespoon is a different size. Arrrrgh! 

Just made my first homemade pie crust today and while it's not as flaky as I'd like, it tastes heavenly!!

What I want to know is why is there nothing on the PIE!!!! thread telling us how wonderful it was?  And a photo of the pie?  Hmmmmm?  (tapping foot)

I think the Aussie cups and spoons may well be different from the US ones. I'm sure Google could tell us but I'm too tired to look now..........

What I usually do is put a piece of kitchen roll in the top when measuring the butter, so that it doesn't make the top sticky. I can then just lift out the butter by the kitchen roll and put it into the mixing bowl/pan etc. I usually don't wash out the bowl inbetween measurements if all the ingredients are going to be mixed together anyway (e.g. if a recipe requires sugar and flour, I weigh them one after the other, without washing). If the ingredients won't be mixed during cooking, then I'll put a sheet of kitchen roll in the top before I weigh each ingredient so there's no residue left in the top.

This is what i do as well... just put a bit of paper towel down.
But... washing it in between ingredients is not that big a deal either.   I usually try to measure all the dry stuff first, then do the butter afterward.

Lol, sorry it was an apple, blackberry pie, I haven't taken a photo, but that would have been a good idea. It's almost gone, I just feel guilty eating it for breakfast, which is what i want to do! I will have it after lunch, that way, I will have gone to the gym by then, less guilt.

If it's a UK recipe, I use metric, if it's an American one, I use my American cups and teaspoons.

I do the same thing.  Just as an aside, I found what looked like a really cool baking cookbook for kids, at The Works, but upon looking at some of the recipes, and how it described some of the 'box mixes', I checked and it was an American cookbook. I didn't get it then, maybe I'll take a closer look at it, and get it next time.

I thought I'd look this up just to eliminate dought.  An Australian tablespoon is 20ml which is 4 teaspoons.  The UK and US tablespoons are 15ml/3 teaspoons.  They Australian cup is the same as the American cup, 250 ml / 8 fl oz.

June

Howdy, this site is the best I've found for doing cups to weight and visa-versa conversions.

http://gourmetsleuth.com/cookingconversions.asp

It converts for each ingredient, i.e. flour from cups to grams, raisins from cups to grams, baking soda from teaspoons to grams.  I would have stopped baking American recipes without it!

Howdy, this site is the best I've found for doing cups to weight and visa-versa conversions.
http://gourmetsleuth.com/cookingconversions.asp

I use that one, too! It's fantastic!

There are more pointers here: http://talk.uk-yankee.com/index.php?topic=34101.0

All you need is a good scale, mine cost £15 and its fab, it measures liquids too! I don't convert, I just measure!

Where did you get your scale?  I cannot find a nice one that isn't £30.

Where did you get your scale?  I cannot find a nice one that isn't £30.

I know you didn't ask me but I got my scale at Tesco.  It is digital and does metric as well ounces/pounds.  I can't remember exactly how much I paid but it was definitely less than £30!

June

Where did you get your scale?  I cannot find a nice one that isn't £30.

I got one at John Lewis that cost £15, its really good. I think its worth £30 to get a really good scale though, its a good investment if you like to cook/bake. IMO a set of scales make a good birthday gift...

I got one in Debenhams that was reduced from £30 to £15.

Marks and Spencer sells the old fashioned scales for £9.50.

There's also a flat, digital scale on the same page for £19.50