Cups to grams for bread baking
These conversions assume the spoon and level method for flour: spoon the flour into the cup until it's heaped, then sweep off the excess with a straight edge. Scooping directly from the bag packs the flour down and can add 15–25% more.
| Ingredient | 1 cup | 1 tablespoon |
|---|---|---|
| Bread flour | 120 g | 7.5 g |
| All-purpose flour | 120 g | 7.5 g |
| Whole wheat flour | 113 g | 7 g |
| Rye flour | 106 g | 6.6 g |
| Spelt flour | 99 g | 6.2 g |
| "00" pizza flour | 116 g | 7.3 g |
| Semolina | 163 g | 10 g |
| Water | 237 g | 15 g |
| Sourdough starter | about 230 g | about 14 g |
| Table salt | – | 18 g (6 g per tsp) |
Why weighing beats cups for sourdough
Sourdough depends on ratios – hydration, starter percentage and salt are all measured against flour weight. Cups vary with how you fill them, how humid your kitchen is and even which flour brand you use. A cheap digital scale removes all of that guesswork, and it means you can use every other tool on this site, like the sourdough calculator and the baker's percentage calculator.
Watch out for salt
Salt is where cup-and-spoon recipes go most wrong. One teaspoon of fine table salt weighs about 6 g, Morton kosher salt about 4.8 g, and Diamond Crystal kosher salt only about 2.8 g – less than half. If a recipe says "2 teaspoons salt" and doesn't say which kind, weigh it instead: most sourdough uses 2% of the flour weight.
Starter by volume
Active starter is full of gas bubbles, so a cup of bubbly starter weighs less than the same starter once it has collapsed. Treat volume measurements of starter as rough – and use the starter feeding calculator to feed by weight.
Frequently asked questions
How many grams is 1 cup of bread flour?
About 120 g when you spoon the flour into the cup and level it off. Scooping straight from the bag packs it down and can give 140 g or more – which is why weighing is more reliable.
How many grams is 1 cup of whole wheat flour?
About 113 g using the spoon-and-level method. Whole wheat flour is coarser and lighter per cup than white flour.
How many grams of salt is 1 teaspoon?
It depends on the salt. Fine table salt is about 6 g per teaspoon, Morton kosher about 4.8 g, and Diamond Crystal kosher only about 2.8 g. That difference is big enough to ruin a loaf, so choose your salt type carefully.
Why should I weigh ingredients for sourdough?
Cups can vary by 20% or more depending on how you fill them, and sourdough relies on precise ratios of flour, water, starter and salt. A digital kitchen scale is the single most useful sourdough tool.