Oven temp and measurment questions

[Patdf]

Hello all,
   A new member here, I have a few questions. Regarding volumn to  weight convertions, I see a number of recipes that have volumn measurements and some with both. I must be doing something wrong but for example I see a recipe with 4.5 cups flour and a weight of 20.25 ounces. If one cup equals 8 ounces how does this calculate? I'm thinking 4.5 cups = 4.5 cups x 8 ozs = 36 ozs. Please explain what I'm doing wrong here or don't understand. Second I have a gas fired brick type oven that I usually cook at 650 degrees with store bought dough (I only tried making dough once and it failed, that's why I'm here LOL) should I put any consideration in the ingredients because of the heat? I want to try to make NY style pizza to start. Thanks in advance for all your help.
Regards,
Pat

[buceriasdon]

Dry and wet ingredients have different weights. For example: http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes2008/master-weight-chart.html   There are others online also. 1 cup of pure water weighs 236.588 grams or 8.3454 ounces, avoirdupois. To add to the confusion are the different methods to measure out a cup and some measuring cup sets also differ slightly. Easiest to just get a digital scale and be done with it. It makes using baker's percent sooooo much easier. I am one who firmly believes there is a relationship between dough formulas and obtaining a great crust according to a certain style of pizza with your oven. A few points difference in water ratio to flour, baker's percent, can make quite a difference in the final crust. It's all in the details.
Don

[csacks]

 Chris on Americas Test kitchen says 1cup of flour weighs 5 ounces.   That's the scoop shake and level method.

[patdakat345]

King Arthur says anywhere from 4 oz to 5 1/2 oz, depending whether you sift or scoop.
For all their recipes that they use on their site they use 4 1/4 oz.
Watched Jacque Pepins show Saturday and he was making bread. He said 3 cups = a pound.
So the best advice is buy a scale and weigh ingredients. That way you introduce consistency, something I never had until I used a scale.
It,s a small investment for large return.

pat

[dellavecchia]

The Mass-Volume Conversion Calculator available here is great:

http://foodsim.toastguard.com/

John