How To Easily Measure Sticky Ingredients Without Making A Mess

Syrups, honey, and nut butters can be a real pain in baking recipes. Measuring them precisely is important, since adding either too much or too little could have adverse effects on the finished product. At the same time, the effort it takes to scrape as much syrupy stuff out of your measuring cup as possible is frankly too much. And aside from the effort, there's always some amount left in the cup that's annoying to waste and leaves you worrying if it will make a difference in the final flavor.

Depending on the details of the recipe, however, there are different ways to combat this sticky issue. The catch-all approach is to coat your measuring cup with oil or cooking spray. If you set the cup down in the sink, you can spray it from a decent distance without oiling up your kitchen counter. With the slippery coating applied, your syrups and other sticky ingredients will slide out of the measuring cup thanks to this "greased" effect.

If the recipe calls for oil, measure it first, then use the lightly coated cup to measure the sticky ingredient. When a recipe calls for ½ a cup of oil and ½ a cup of honey that can be combined, you can measure them in the same cup.

Even if you prefer cup measurements, there are still times when a kitchen scale is undeniably useful — and this is one of them. By placing your mixing bowl on top of the scale and taring it to zero, you can squeeze your syrupy substance into the bowl without using a measuring cup at all. It's quick, easy, and perfectly accurate. You can search the internet for measurement conversions – for example, tablespoons to ounces or grams — but many digital recipes offer a conversion tool on the site as well.

Sometimes, it's better to measure out ingredients in advance, which means you need to put them into a separate dish first. For example, when I make no-bake cookies, I need to measure out the peanut butter so I can quickly add it to the hot mixture as soon as it's ready. A scale allows me to ditch the measuring cup for a dish that's better shaped for my needs. By weighing the peanut butter on a small plate or shallow dish, I can transfer it all to the cookie mixture with just one or two spatula scrapes. This approach works best for thick, sticky substances like nut butters or solid butter. For pourable sticky ingredients, such as syrups or honey, using an oiled measuring cup can be more effective.