Question for the bakers in this forum

[bif]

I have a recipe for Irish soda bread from someone we stayed with in Ireland. It was excellent. However the recipe calls for a pound of white flour. Roughly how many cups is a pound of flour?

[seabeyond]

1. this is what i found

Amount : 1 pound (lb of plain flour (PF) white)
Equals : 3.63 US cups (us cup / plain flour (PF) white)
Fraction : 3 63/100 US cups (us cup / plain flour (PF) white)

[greatauntoftriplets]

2. My recipe calls for 2 1/2 cups. No idea what it weighs.

Funny thing, I'm planning to make Irish soda bread later today.

[Sentath]

3. I'm afraid my answer will be a bit pedantic, feel free to skip it.

If you want it to work right, it calls for a pound of flour.

Volume measurements for something as variable as flour as notoriously inaccurate.

A good scale can be had for relatively little anymore.

Also, being a foreign recipe, please check the nature of the flour and especially the soda.

[pscot]

4. I use a digital scale to weigh

ingredients when I bake. $14.95 at Amazon, with free shipping. A level cup of flour weighs about 5 ounces

[rdharma]

5. Here's a handy King Arthur Flour weight/volume conversion chart

Last edited Fri Mar 28, 2014, 02:52 PM - Edit history (1)

Here's the King Arthur recipe for Irish soda bread. http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/irish-soda-bread-recipe

And here's a handy dandy weight/volume conversion chart http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipe/master-weight-chart.html

PS - pscot's recommendation on buying a good scale is good advice. I use mine all the time. And it's useful for other things than just cooking and baking.

I've got a Sharper Image scale with 11# capacity. It was about $30 at Bed Bath and Beyond.

PPS - Bob's Red Mill also has a bunch of soda bread recipes http://www.bobsredmill.com/recipes.php?cmd=search&sort=name&keyword=soda+bread

PPPS - This is my last edit........ I promise.

[Warpy]

6. I'd suggest investing in a kitchen scale

because all European recipes are by weight, not volume and the best pastry recipes come from there (YMMV, of course).

I liked my Irish bread on the fancy side, with caraway and dried currants.

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

7. If you are going to bake bread regularly

A scale is a necessity. I own an Ozeri Touch Professional Digital Kitchen Scale, which set me back $30, but is well worth it. It measures in grams, ounces (to the nearest tenth of an ounce), milliliters and fluid ounces. The top is a flat piece of glass, so a squirt of Windex and a swipe with a cloth will clean it. It takes AAA batteries. When I put a 500 gram weight on it, it registered 498 grams, so the accuracy is quite acceptable.