Help me make sense of cup sizes to gram conversions, they dont add up. Literally

[soupfiend]

So here is the american sizing (Its an American website/recipe)

• 1 1/4 cups unsalted butter, melted
• ▢1 1/2 cups light brown sugar
• ▢1 cup granulated sugar
• ▢4 large eggs, room temperature
• ▢2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• ▢1 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• ▢3/4 cup all purpose flour
• ▢1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• ▢1/2 cup chopped hazelnuts
• ▢2 tablespoons hazelnut butter, substitute chocolate hazelnut spread
• ▢flaky sea salt, optional

Here is the metric conversion they give

• 284 g unsalted butter, melted
• ▢330 g light brown sugar
• ▢200 g granulated sugar
• ▢4 large eggs, room temperature
• ▢2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• ▢129 g unsweetened cocoa powder
• ▢94 g all purpose flour
• ▢0.5 teaspoon kosher salt
• ▢60 g chopped hazelnuts
• ▢2 tablespoons hazelnut butter, substitute chocolate hazelnut spread
• ▢flaky sea salt, optional

Here is what the cup sizes worked out to be when I weighed them

1.25 cups of melted butter is around 270g (almost the same as recipe)
1.5 cups of brown sugar (although I realised it was dark brown, although it looked light brown), is 235g (much less than the recipe)
1 cup of white sugar is 200g (same as recipe)
3/4 cup of flour is 98g (same as recipe give or take)
1.5 cup of cocoa powder 183g (much more than recipe)

When Ive made this before, I have stuck to the metric and found it so runny (its a brownie) that it virtually doesnt cook and it falls apart. Today's was a bit more solid, but I wont know until tomorrow if its ok

So what do you do when converting from cups to grams. I googled cups to grams and the conversion above is what is on google but it doesnt add up when you weigh the cup amounts yourself.

Another recipe I have calls for cups and things like butter, you cant put that in a cup and try to make sense of it, you would have to squish it all in. Same with peanut butter.

Demerara Sugar vs Brown Sugar | Ragus

I'm American, living in the UK, and I always do butter by weight (1/2 c = 113 grams) and then often to the rest of the recipe in cups.

The thing that jumps out at me is that recipe has too many eggs for the amount of sugar and flour. With that amount of eggs and no raising agent (which you wouldn't have for brownies) I'd be surprised if they weren't a bit of a soupy mess.

I find Dominos brown sugar in the US, which is what most people use, has pretty much the same consistency as soft brown sugar here.

Both of these are good, pretty classic American brownies and both call for two eggs.

She gives volume and weight measurements

https://smittenkitchen.com/2012/08/my-favorite-brownies/
https://smittenkitchen.com/2010/01/best-cocoa-brownies/

If you're saying you placed the measuring cup on the scales - Why?

And did you include the weight of the cup in the total?

They cook properly by trusting their recipes, not second-guessing them by trying to convert to grams or ounces, and using the standard cup measures the recipes are written for. The proportions are all correct in volume recipes.

They also use the recommended ways of scooping and/or leveling dry ingredients using the measuring cup, and packing down brown sugar.

@user3344556 I was going to post that exact same recipe, it's my go to and always comes out well! I use Smitten Kitchen a lot for baking.

If it's digital scales you can put a cup/bowl/whatever on them, zero the weight and then weigh the ingredients.

They are 100% reliable.

Just stop weighing after you've measured, and trust the recipes.

As a rule of thumb - and this is stated in every American cookbook I've ever come across - never tamp down flour or cocoa, sift dry ingredients only when a recipe asks you to, and pack down brown sugar (Nancy Birtwhistle of Bakeoff has a video on making your own soft brown sugar).

Yes, my scale has its own little bowl and a lever to place at zero, but the OP said 'into the cup' and I wondered what cup she was talking about.

Oh I see. I assumed she put a cup on her scales, set them to zero and then weighed the ingredients.

I'm going to say this again in case it gets lost - that recipe has too many eggs for the amount of flour for brownies. I think that's more likely to be your problem than slight variations in measurements.

Agreed that Domino's sugar is very very similar to soft brown sugar in the UK. In some countries like France or Germany the brown sugar is very different; US and UK are almost identical. The only real difference for sugar is that US regular sugar is somewhere between UK regular and caster, so if you're making a light sponge and the recipe just calls for sugar, just use caster. American recipes rarely bother calling for their equivalent of caster sugar.

Yes! When we first moved to the UK I was surprised by how much coarser regular UK sugar is than in the US. I pretty much always use golden caster sugar in US recipes now.

I found the perfect solution to the problem of converting American cups to metric ( on the continent here). I gave up baking.
All that butter (fat) and white flour! (glutin) and sugar horror! Recipes for obesity. Stopped eating this kind of food. Problem solved.

May I send you a set of measuring cups / spoons?

I have measures that will do ml by volume. Pour in cocoa powder, level off, boom, you have measured cocoa powder by ml in volume. Just the same as doing it in ounces.

butter you go by size, no one stuffs it into a measuring device. You just learn to chop off the right amount. A tablespoon is about a finger width. 8 tablespoons in a stick. 1 Stick is 1/2 a cup.

Do you know US cups are smaller volumetrically than other cups? 240ml vs 250ml…

also there are unwritten rules for US recipes that can be like secret handshakes 😂 Fine, dry goods like Flour needs to be fluffed then spooned into a cup, levelled with a knife. Brown sugar needs to be firmly packed.

Also, Large eggs in the US generally weigh less than a medium egg in the U.K.

They are different sizes 🙄

The rules are well and truly written. You'll find them in every American baking bible/ comprehensive cookbook.

You don't need to fluff the flour.

Maybe use your own conversions rather than trusting the website, sounds like they got some of it wrong.

As long as the ratios are similar the recipe will work.

And ultimately if you chuck a lot of sugar, fat and wheat in the oven it's going to be delicious 😅Baking doesn't always have to be super precise, some of it is just experimental.

Why are you converting if you have cup measures. Am I missing something? DON'T SHOUT AT ME.

Why even weigh it. The recipe says 2 cups, just do 2 cups surely. Regardless that they say it's 170g in a dodgy converter (you think) and you are getting 160g or whatever...

This. Just use the cups OP, why the drama?

American egg sizes are standardised by weight per dozen instead of weight per egg. So a dozen large eggs = 24oz, extra large = 27oz, jumbo = 30oz. So a large egg (the standard for American recipes) weighs, on average, 57g... but give or take.

It's close enough to UK medium eggs for almost all recipe purposes, though. If a recipe is really particular, it will give a weight or volume measurement, e.g. a cup of egg whites in one of my cake recipes.

I totally get where you are coming from OP. I’ve always wondered about this, and now we know, people are just chucking stuff in there. It’s not scientific and it’s very annoying. I think some people view a recipe as a rough guideline, these people should not be doing e.g. chemistry or nuclear physics. Then there are others of us who need precision.

I have a set of cups too, but mine are metric so don't work with US recipes.

Australia also use cups, their cups are metric.

Don't forget our ingredients can be slightly different. Our butter has more butterfat and is made differently.

US flour tends to have more gluten.

Small differences can make a huge difference in baking.

I am not a baker but these are always perfect.

Gooey and delicious.

You have to leave them a couple of hours before cutting them up to be able to cut them. They will come out of the oven like liquid.

www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/chocolate-recipes/bloomin-brilliant-brownies/