How to Accurately Measure Honey, Molasses and More Sticky Ingredients Without Making a Mess

Cooking with sticky ingredients is always well worth it. Peanut butter cookies, gingerbread treats, and honey cakes are never a mistake. However, measuring these key ingredients can feel like a major struggle. Half the peanut butter gets stuck in the measuring cup or wrapped around the teaspoon. Marshmallow fluff ends up more on your fingers than your utensils. Honey and molasses drizzle everywhere but the mixing bowl, and before you know it, you've lost track of the quantity.

In baking especially, precise measurements are essential, which is why it's good to have a viscous ingredient trick up your sleeve. Next time you have to measure a particularly sticky ingredient, try this simple hack, which doesn't even dirty any extra tools. If that isn't a win-win, we don't know what is!

Before measuring said sticky ingredient, rub a very small amount of a neutral cooking oil (grapeseed, avocado or vegetable oil all work well) over the measuring utensil, making sure it all has a decent coat of grease. Then, pour or squirt your sticky ingredient into the measuring vessel, and watch the perfect quantity slide out when it's time to combine ingredients. Yes, it's that easy.

If your recipe already calls for oil or melted butter, you can also use the same measuring utensil that's already coated in sticky-resistant edible grease.

This technique works if you're measuring the sticky ingredient by weight or by dry measurement. What's more? The thin slick of oil on your measuring tool won't affect the quantity or flavor of your ingredient, and will only help it slide out and be easier to measure.

It's easiest to apply the oil shield to metal or glass cooking tools, but plastic works too. Unfortunately, this technique won't work well with wood, as wood absorbs the cooking oil like a snack. No matter what tool you're using, you'll want to measure the sticky ingredient and add it to your recipe sooner rather than later, before the oil and ingredient can meld together. This doesn't happen quickly, but depending on the temperature in your kitchen, you don't want your perfect syrupy measurement to mingle too much with the oiled utensil.

Once you've measured the single tablespoon of honey you need for your next baking project, with minimal cleanup, we might add, we guarantee you won't go back to measuring pesky adhesive ingredients any other way.