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equivalencies american cups to metric

1K views 5 replies 3 participants last post by  karendf 
#1 ·
Hello everyone,

I haven't been able to find this info on THIS site and am having trouble finding it in the CIA Pastry book or on the internet. I just converted a recipe I found here for a quiche crust.

A chef here gave me these equivalents...do they sound right?

1 cup of flour: 140 g
1 cup of butter: 225 g

This recipe I just put together and stuck in the fridge is:


2 cups all purpose flour: 280 g flour

1 tsp salt
pinch sugar
1 cup unsalted butter: 225 g butter
1/3 cup ice water

I ended up putting not much water at all, didn't seem to need it. What I was reading is that the ratio for this type of thing is 2 to 1 for flour to butter.

So I'm wondering if I'm ok, in terms of cups...although in terms of Grams I'm off.

This is always an issue for me since I weigh with my scale, seems easier for me, and convert to grams, what we use around here. the 140 g per cup of flour usually works out ok.

But another thing, I go to my first edition Julia Child's and she seems to have another thing goign on...1 cup for her is 100 grams of flour...that's too little.

If you have a site you can recommend, I'd be very grateful!
:smiles:
 
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#2 ·
Can't help you with the butter.

Converting flour can be a real problem, because there are big differences depending on authority cited and how the "cup" was measured.

Most bread experts use 4.5 to 5 ounces as a cup equivalent. That would convert to from 126-140 grams. So the 140 gram figure you have is well within reason.

I agree with you that 100 grams sounds far too light. Working backwards, that would make a cup of flour weigh only 3.5 ounces.
 
#3 ·
KY said what there is to be said about flour.

Just like water, butter measurements translate across weight and volume. 8 ounces is 226.8 grams -- so, 225 is definitely close enough.

The ratio from the CIA book of nearly equal weights flour to butter will yield a very, very short crust indeed. It's certainly far richer than an ordinary pate brisee, which raises the question of what that particular tart is all about. Inquring minds want to know.

More normatively, and more metrically convenient, think about the vast majority of tart crusts in terms of twice the weight of flour to that of butter. Karen, I know you're something of a polyglot. If you have any French at all, try googling "recette de pate brisee sans oeuf;" and also "recette de pate brisee," most of which, unlike your recipe, will include oeufs -- or at least their jaunes. In either case, you'll find almost every recipe specifices your friend's 2 : 1 ratio for weight, and not volume. Pastry recipes seem a lot more definitive in French, if you know what I mean, and that ought to help your comfort level.

On the other hand, if you don't read French, just ignore the whole thing. What do they know about quiche anyway?

Hope this helps,
BDL
 
#4 ·
The recipe I got was from this forum from June from someone who says he/she uses it so..., I'll paste it here, we'll see what happens in the kitchen shortly.

QUOTE=vapour;269263]yeah, margarine is made up of a lot of water and will not make a decent crust at all. my stand by recipe for pies and quiche:

2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
pinch sugar
1 cup unsalted butter, diced and frozen
1/3 cup (more or less) ice water

blitz dry ingredients in food processor. add frozen butter and blitz again till the biggest pieces of butter are the size of peas. i now dump this mix into a bowl and finish by hand. slowly add ice water and mix until the dough doesnt crumble into sand once you press it together.

at this point, it will still be somewhat falling apart, but you need to press it together and put it in the fridge wrapped for at least 30 mins before rolling.

margarine doesn't have a place in the pastry kitchen, there are no benefits to using it. if you're making a quiche, make a proper quiche, and the result will be much more satisfying :)[/QUOTE]

...

I'm such a novice that I just didn't want to downsize the recipe I found in my CIA prof. Book. But they have a recipe for Quiche Lorraine.

I DO actually know French, and quite well, but that's another story. I'll take a look at the pate brisée later.
:look:
 
#5 ·
Well, whatever "Vapour" uses she uses; and I'm not about to say she's wrong even though her recipe doesn't seem like an ideal utility crust.

Of course there are a lot of variations for regular, "flaky" pie crusts, but there's also a middle of the road standard formula which works for nearly everything. You'll see it in nearly every recipe you look at. And that's 3 volumes of flour for every volume of fat. In terms of weight, that's roughly 1-1/2 weights of flour per 1 weight of fat -- whatever the units -- whether grams ounces or carats, it makes no difference. These flaky crusts aren't uniquely American, but they're more typical with us; so you'll more often see the measurements expressed in terms of volume than weight.

Tart (including quiche) doughs are made to stand alone outside of the shell, which requires them be tougher than an American pie. Consequently, there's almost always a relatively higher proportion of flour to fat than in those tender pie doughs. As we already established, that's roughly 2 flour per 1 fat by weight, and about 4 flour to 1 fat by volume.

When it comes to sweet tarts, there are other possibilities besides pate brisee. The sugar in pate sucree strengthens the structure even more relative to a pate brisee, and crispis it too. While the very high proportion of fat (something like Vapour's recipe) makes a pate sablee very tender and crumbly.

I'm not sure that you get better information by looking at French online resources, but they do tend to be a lot more consistent than those in English -- which gives you a strong sense of both the fountainhead and the mainstream.

BDL
 
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