Do you sift flour?
My grandmother always sifted flour, and I just found a cookbook from her era (1933) which insists you have to sift it, not once but four times -- once to measure it properly, and then three more times after you have added the salt and baking powder to it. For every baking recipe.
I am so not going to do this. Unless ... does it really make a difference? The book warns that if you don't sift, your baked goods might be tough, you'll use too much flour, and your cakes might "hump in the middle."
And yes, my last cake humped in the middle. No kidding. Should I ...?
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20 Comments:
i think the rule of thumb is:
if it says sifted flour - you'd better sift it.
whenever i make angel food cake i sift the flour three times.... also sifting the sugar along with it.....
i know it's a pain in the butt but you gotta do it.
pooch at 9:30PM on 05/11/09
Nope. It's an old practice to remove the dregs of bug bodies, mouse hairs etc. from bulk flours.
Now I just measure dry ingredients, by weight or spoons as required, and whisk together.
A little extra protein never hurts anyway.
whoot at 9:55PM on 05/11/09
i dont know about 4x, but am i the only one who kind of enjoys sifting?
nalega at 9:56PM on 05/11/09
I was just wondering about this today! Everyone says baking is so finicky--that you really need to sift and measure exactly. I rarely do these things and everything seems to come out OK. I guess an exception would be something like angel food cake which is rather delicate. I often do whisk together dry ingredients however.
brookes at 10:07PM on 05/11/09
only for cakes that rely on whipped eggs/egg whites to rise.
hmw0029 at 10:37PM on 05/11/09
Sifting is one of those things that I try to remember and do when I have time, but I don't freak out about it if I forget. I agree with what others have said - it does seem to be more important in light, airy cakes such as angel food, chiffon, etc. However, I've also found that simply whisking your dry ingredients together seems to work just as well in most baked goods. Oh, and for the record, when I do sift, it's only once. I think, at some point, I made an angel food cake that had me sift the flour three times, but other than that...four times just seems a bit excessive, and I don't know how much it really makes a difference.
kimberlymac at 10:58PM on 05/11/09
Okay, the sifting was NOT JUST to remove bugs and mouse hairs. That is the first time I have heard that as the ONLY reason for sifting. It isn't.
We had another thread about this here on SE-
http://www.seriouseats.com/talk/2007/12/to-sift-or-not-to-sift.html
In part, older recipes called for sifting because flour was coarser than it is now and it really did adversely affect texture and crumb. Also, in many cases, especially for a more tender cake or pastry you can get lumps of flour that don't mix in all the way and toughness, uneven rise and large air holes. Sifting removed chaff and any hard lumps, as well as the mentioned pests.
Sifting adds air, dries the flour if it contains any moisture, and really does make a difference in tenderness in many baked goods.
These days flour is finer than it used to be, and yes for the home baker sifting is not always necessary. I don't sift flour for basic cakes, brownies, cookies or breads. I sure as heck sift, even the best cake flours, for angel food cakes, sponges, puff pastry, pie crusts and pasta.
For any recipe that calls for very light folding or mixing, I am adamant about making sure all the dry ingredients are mixed as well as possible. (Flour, baking powder, soda, salt, spices etc.) For anything I am beating more, or is less sensitive to small texture changes I don't.
sadiepix at 11:04PM on 05/11/09
to avoid the hump, i use magicake strips. they work great.
cybercita at 11:16PM on 05/11/09
I never sift; I just fluff the flour with the measuring cup a few times first like Ina does. It's never yielded negative results.
buffy at 12:32AM on 05/12/09
I usually try to store my flour in a big airtight plastic container. It keeps better this way and is neater. Whenever I use it, i shake it up a bit before scooping. This is what I do for most things. Flour settles and can yield a denser cake. Then, after shaking, it I'm making something that needs to be particularly light/fluffy, then I sift. Usually, I'm too lazy and end up making something else.
I have had some situations when not-sifting caused problems with lumps. Bits of raw flour is really gross...
engmcmuffin at 9:03AM on 05/12/09
Sifting the flour reduces the bulk density. In simpler words, it creates space between the flour granules and makes a cup of sifted flour weigh less than a cup of unsifted flour. If you make the recipe twice, once with unsifted flour and once with sifted flour, the one using sifted flour will be lighter and less dense. the one with sifted flour will be heavier as the proportions of liquid and leavening will be out of proportion.
Also, cake flour has the tendency to clump into balls, Take some in your hand and squeeze, and it conforms to the inside of your fist, same thing happens sitting in a bag or box. If you are folding cake flour into whipped egg whites, you may not be able to break up the lumps in the flour and leave flour balls.
Baking has science behind it, and once it is understood, the old practices make sense.
Meat guy at 9:10AM on 05/12/09
i whisk the flour in the bowl I will me mixing it in to loosen the flour up... it works for me and my cakes and baked goods turn out fine...
MadelynRodriguez at 10:42AM on 05/12/09
nalega: i love sifting too! (it was always my job as a youngster)
nowadays, i typically use a scale to measure out ingredients to keep it consistent. back then though, my mom taught me to tap the top of the measuring cup with a knife before sliding it across to clear the excess.
never heard of using a whisk-great idea!
gastronomeg at 10:50AM on 05/12/09
Sifting is very important for certain recipes, so you can't just disregard that request all the time. For example, if you are making a genoise cake and you don't sift, you deflate the egg mixture and pretty much ruin the cake. Just whisking the mixture won't cut it. If you feel that an old recipe is asking you to sift but you question whether or not it's necessary, why don't you research similar recipes online to see if they do as well? I'm sure if you google genoise, a recipe from today will look like one from decades ago. But maybe a cookie recipe might not be the same anymore because of the differences in dry ingredient qualities. A little research will probably go a long way.
meem21 at 11:12AM on 05/12/09
@meatguy - you have great information - I wish you would write a book!
bareneed at 11:44AM on 05/12/09
The person who wrote that cookbook suffered from an extreme form of OCD - which was of course misdiagnosed back then. That's a CRAZY insane number of times to sift anything, even when making angel food cake from scratch.
I tend to "whisk" my dries to aerate them and de-lump them. Unless I'm after a very, very tender result, I'm not likely to whip out the sifter (though I do have two of them - what happens when you combine households).
therealchiffonade at 12:20PM on 05/12/09
For cakes I do. For breads I don't. Either way I measure flour by weight.
Though I might start sifting everything before use. I found a (ugh) dead silverfish in my flour the other day.
milkytea at 5:14PM on 05/12/09
I agree that sifting is oddly fun. Also, recipe measurements are usually for sifted quantities, even if they don't say so. And it thoroughly mixes dry ingredients. And filters out dead things.
4 times is excessive, but it's fun and useful - why you you NOT sift?
pie_maven at 8:26PM on 05/12/09
sifting is a process of breaking the clumps up. it does this by not processing through smaller particles and then larger particles are scratched at till they break up. unless the stuff is moist, it should not reclump because you add baking soda or salt.
so if you live in a very humid climate, i might sift twice. i usually sift once for cooking and i use it as a method of starting the mixing process.
blizcheetah at 11:43PM on 05/12/09
I usually weigh my flour rather than relying on a volume measurement. Also, I usually dump all the dry ingredients into a bowl with the flour and then use the whisk attachment on a stick mixer to stir the dry ingredients together. If I am going to be making a heavy dough, I use the whisk attachment on my stand mixer. I never sift my flour. It's a waste of time.
Grumpy Old Man at 2:22PM on 05/21/09