Question: Do we really need to sift the flour?
Answer: Nah… it’s cool, why bother?
We’re done here, right? Almost…
You’ve seen the recipes… they read something like ‘sift together flour, baking soda and salt’, or they say something like ‘3 cups sifted flour’.
If you’re anything like me, you read those recipes more like ‘take out that sifter that you sometimes use as a pasta strainer, dirty it up with flour, make more of a mess than you intended, and then keep baking.’ Not ideal. I know.
Do we rreeeaalllyyy have to sift the flour when baking? No, and yes.
Sifting is meant to aerate flour before it is incorporated into a dough or batter.
First things first: be honest about your flour. Is your flour sitting in the paper sack you bought it in? Is it hiding in the back of your cupboard with a discarded bag of brown sugar sitting on top of it?
Just by virtue of being shipped from a place in a bag on a truck means that your flour has been packed and compressed within its confines. It’s best to transfer flour to a large, airtight storage container when you get it home. Transfer it to a big ol’ container and give it a big stir with a wooden spoon. You just aerated the flour! Boom. That was easy.
Second things second: now it’s time to make and bake! Take the big ol’ flour container out of the cupboard and once again give it a stir with a wooden spoon. That’s air in the flour. Use a light hand when spooning flour into the measuring cup (we’ll talk about measuring vs weighing soon!) and swipe the flour with a knife to that the flour is flush with the measuring cup. Place in a bowl. Combine the flour with the other dry ingredients. Things like baking powder, baking soda, and salt will likely also go with the flour.
Next: we ‘sift’… with a whisk! Whisk together all of the dry ingredients. Literally. With a whisk. Just get in there and go for it! Whisking is just the aeration we need to create in our flour. Using a whisk is like killing two birds with one stone. The flour is aerated and the dry ingredients are combined. Whisking the flour also gives you a chance to really look at your flour, making sure it’s fluffy and debris-free.
But wait! What if the recipe calls for 3 cups sifted flour? Well…. plunge that whisk right down into your flour container (because you have a big one now), give it a good whisking and then measure accordingly. I promise things will work out.
Hold up! Should I sift powdered sugar? Yes. You should. Powdered sugar is one ingredient that will meet your laziness with lumps. Rude (the lumps not the laziness.)
Baking 101: How To Read A Recipe
Baking 101: Why We Use Unsalted Butter
Photos above feature: Lavender Blackberry Scones, Vanilla Sugar Doughnuts, and Brown Butter Banana Bread with Rum and Coconut.
104 Responses
I made banana bread for the first time and didn’t sit or whisk the flour, just stored with fork. It turned out pretty good, but I bet it would have been lighter if I had sifted or whisked the flour first. Thank you for the info!!
I agree, these recipes were made in perhaps 1890 when they needed to remove bugs,and didn’t have digital scales. I still whisk so it hydrates better.
Love this article. Couldn’t agree more. I sift pastries that need to be light, delicate, or might suffer if they were to become to heavy or compact. But I usually whisk most cakes. Love your writing style, btw.
Well, gee whiz……………..just whisk it! What a huge plus. I’d about giving up on baking that called for the mess of sifting! God bless our whisks!
Joy, have you ever read the introduction to Rose Levy Barenbaum’s “The Cake Bible.” There’s a cute little story about how she knew she found her future husband and it had everything to do with sifting flour. I’ve sifted my flour ever since reading it, mostly because I’m sentimental.
My kids 4 and 7 live to sift, but its good to know that there are other options.
Now that I live in the UK, all the recipes use weight rather than volume. That means that worrying about whether 6 cups sifted is the same as 6 sifted cups is no longer an issue. 500g flour is 500g flour no matter how much air is in it! So now I weigh and whisk — presto!!
Call me slow u just do not get the whisking technique pls explain step by step
thank all of you!! Whisk it is!!!!!!!!
And I just hunted all over my kitchen for the flour sifter, that I can’t remember when I last used it.
But I have a new package of flour after throwing away what I had forever. I don’t bake much, but it is Christmas and I want to make some cookies.
On my way to the kitchen NOW!!! I’m making a new low fat chocolate “Bliss” cookie. Can’t wait to whisk away! Yay! Thanks
I knew there was a reason for the sieving but never knew I could take a “lazy” if not quicker route. Very clever! Thanks!!!
how to use baking soda and baking powder? for instance I want to create a recipe of 4 x original for a large quantity cookie… the flour and butter and sugar I have figured out, but do not know how much baking soda and baking powder to use… can you advise? Thank you!
thank you so much for that brilliant idea! I can’t wait to make something else now that calls for sifted flour and use your idea. what a great page!
I do the samething! Its a must in Mississippi
It’s actually a neat along with useful bit of data. I am just delighted which you simply embraced this useful information and facts along with us. You should continue to be all of us informed similar to this. Appreciate your giving.
Hello!
I’m a longtime reader who just popped in to say how happy this makes me- you just justified years of my laziness. Ironically, a week after I read this I ended up finding another reason to sift when I went to make fried green tomatoes. Sigh.
-Becca
How the heck did you know my bag of brown sugar was sitting on top of my bag of flour?!?!
Seriously, that’s where it is!
Love your site and especially this series.
Did you know that only in North America we have to worry about sifting / adding air to the flour before measuring it? Packed vs. aerated flour doesn’t weigh the same thing. The measuring cups system is not precise at all compared to the metric system and weighing the ingredients. 400 grams of flour, packed or sifted, is always 400 grams of flour. As a French Canadian, I’ve always baked and cooked using cups and spoons, but I recently converted to the scale, and I love the precision it offers. Of course, I am still using the cups when the recipe is asking for them. I am comfortable with both systems, but I prefer the metric /weighing the ingredients…
LOL!! I bought a sifter. Used it once. Got disgusted with the cleanup!!! Tossed it into the storage box. Bought a mesh strainer. Use it for all my “sifting”. After reading this. I will WHISK my flour, and use mesh strainer for powdered sugar!! Awesome!!
I baked cookies last night and was contemplating this question. I almost never sift when the recipe calls for it. Thanks for explaining that sifting is essentially aerating the flour. I LOVE the whisking idea.
I often use the whisk method, but I’ve found that certain occasions call for sifting. For example, cocoa powder tends to have so many clumps. So, I use the sifter anytime I make something with cocoa powder, oat flour, or certain spices like ground ginger.
Love the series! Two topics I would love to read about are: softening the butter and why the same cookies turn out differently every time I bake them. Mysteries to me! Thanks!
I find sifting the dry ingredients is the quickest way to break up lumps.
I am lazy as well with sifting my flour for my at home projects… whisking is totally the same thing!
However, if I were to get caught not doing it at work… well, let’s just say there would be some high-stressed voices telling me about the importance of sifting my flour in German. It wouldn’t be pretty…
Great tips Joy!
sifting is for suckers!!
Yup, bugs was the the culprit. And sifting the solution. And since it does aerate, or fluff, the flour, volumes are going to be different from a non-sifed flour. I have my flour in a Tupperware container that I just upend a couple times….lid on, lid on!!… to get that lovely just sifted texture. And whisk is right. Bake on!
So I spent $4.50 on a sifter that I never really needed?!?
Oh I’m miffed! not at you but at myself for not knowing this sooner…
If I’d have thought that stirring the flour would have the same effect as a sifter, I could have saved my money & maybe even had some fun with it…
TY for sharing this Ms.Wilson..you truly are a gem of a Lady..
God Bless you
Using a whisk is the way to go! Unless it’s cake/pastry flour, then I tend to sift. Oh or cocoa, it’s always so lumpy!
i literally was just wondering “why do i really have to sift these ingredients so many times!?” yesterday. you totally read my mind joy!
thanks for the answer :] i will be whisk “sifting” from now on (well, when i can get away with it….) and thanks for this new series, it is absolutely amazing for the novice baker and i love reading it!
Genius! I love it. Now if I can get rid of cupboard moths I’d be set. (I just think of them as extra protein).
whisk?!!! Life just got about a thousand times easier. That is genius.
Same here – I whisk instead of sift most of the time. I do sift for say an angel food cake or when a recipe tells you to sift like 3x; I figure (hopefully) there’s a good reason for it beyond just making extra work for me. I do sift powder sugar and cocoa if it’s a large amount too.
This might be obvious to a lot of people but it never occurred to me to sift the flour in the storage container! I always keep it in a large container in the fridge or freezer but never used the container for sifting. Thanks!
As always, I’m grateful for your wisdom, attitude, and creativity. Thanks, Joy!
I do the whisk, for sure. But now I need to go get a big ol’ container for my flour. I keep my flour in the fridge, btw. Is that weird/bad? I do that to keep bugs/ants out of it because if you’ve ever had to toss an entire bag of flour/sugar/etc because of an ant invasion you learn to hide your valuables in the fridge where (so far) the little boogers can’t get in. :)
I don’t have a sifter. I’ve always just stirred my flour really well and called that good. Now I feel justified. P.S. I love your 101 posts. They really help clueless people like me who just guess their way through cooking.
Thanks so much for this! Using a whisk is so much easier than using a sifter & I have always wondered if sifting was a hold-over from earlier times!
Joy, I am so relived to hear this. I trust you. I believe you. And I will…well, obeying you would be weird and is rife with issues. Anyway, I have seriously been whisking my dry ingredients together ever since my Mom allowed me to start baking stuff. Do you have one of those metal sifters that you squeeze the handle and only about half of the flour or powdered sugar actually comes out the other end. Brutal! How do you even clean one of those?!
Haha love this: “Be honest about your flour.”
Loving this series… I never know when to sift, now I will whisk
Loving the baking tips! Super helpful – thank you!
Joy!!! (Did I get your attention?)
Inspired heavily by Glutenfree Girl, I’ve spent the whoooole month of September completely sugar free (other than sugar in fruit). Once October starts, I’m going to go back to allowing myself to eat sweets every now and again with certain restrictions.
Okay, so my question to you is have you ever experimented with baking with alternative kinds of sugars (not fake-sugars because they just taste fake to me) like maple syrup, honey, coconut sugar, applesauce, monkfruit??? Is it ever going to be possible to have light and fluffy cakes and rolls and scones with whole grains and better-for-you sugars?
I’m sure that as we go into the holidays, several of your readers would love a little info on this subject so that we can indulge without going into sugar comas.
You know, it’s not like you have ANYTHING else going on right now. *wink* *nudge*
And also I hope you have a blessed day.
I never sift. And whenever my husband bakes (once in a blue moon) he ALWAYS sifts and when his dessert comes out good he’ll say “that’s because I wasn’t lazy and sifted the flour”. haha. Now that I read this, I know he’s just crazy ;)
I can’t believe I’ve never thought of just sticking my whisk in my flour container when I need cups of sifted flour. Duh! I’ll certainly be remembering that trick.
yeah, a fork always works for me. who has the kitchen space for one more semi-useless item?
https://semiweeklyeats.blogspot.com/2013/09/pumpkin-pie-millkshake.html
This is awesome. I have always wondered why sift? – and rarely do. You have made it clear. Thanks!!
oh dear, i am pretty old fashioned i guess because i always sift – i actually enjoy watching the flour go through the sieve…
This was precisely the answer I was hoping to hear. Sifting flour is somehow the hardest thing ever.
Hi – I’m okay with sifting, I do like how any little hard bits are separated out so I can toss them. But I love the way you described the best way to store the flour and that I can use a whisk in place of sifting. So informative and helpful. Thanks!
I sometimes sift my flour — depends on the recipe and my mood — although, as mentioned by other commenters, I do always sift when it involves cocoa powder. I have tried sifting the flour when I make lemon bars (even though the recipe doesn’t call for sifting), but it doesn’t seem to get rid of tiny flour clumps in the finished product either way.
I actually never sift my powdered sugar for frosting anymore (I usually don’t measure it, either, I just dump it in there a bit at a time), and I seriously do not see any difference. If you keep beating it long enough with the stand mixer paddle attachment, all lumps seem to disappear.
A whisk? What a clever idea! I have not seen this tip before – it is priceless!
I learned my lesson with Powdered sugar after buying it in bulk (25 lb bag) … it SOOOO needed to be sifted… after one pan of Texas Sheet Cake/Buttermilk Brownie with white lumps in my frosting, I’ve learned to sift it…. I know not many buy it by the 25lb bag.. but it was cheap , and I split it with a friend!
Thanks for all your great recipes, Joy!
Brilliant! I never thought to whisk my flour before sifting. I do relish breaking out my old fashioned crank sifter every once in a great while, though!
This is great! Love these posts that pick apart “baking lingo”. SO helpful for us amateurs! :)
https://sometimesgracefully.com
I love your baking 101 lessons! They make me want to follow all of the rules. In baking, and in life. :) Baking is a science, and I can respect those rules. Keep up the great work, Joy!
thanks for the baking 101 courses. lovin’ them. i’ve been baking like a mad lady since christmas (see, i found out that i’m expecting in january and i just haven’t stopped needing cookies and sweets since then). i’ve learned a lot in the last 9.5 months of experience but these are good guidelines to live by. thanks, jtb.
i really love the baking 101 tips! they’re so useful!
Another dry ingredient I always sift is cocoa powder, because it seems to clump most of the time in the container! :) This was such a fabulous post!
whisks are sexy. Whiskey Wednesdays’s are even better!
I don’t always sift even when it calls for it, though I know it makes the recipe so much better when I do. I like the use of the whisk in the flour and I never thought to whisk powdered sugar but I am going to now!!
Thanks Joy – these sifting shortcuts are super helpful. I have probably avoided a lot of recipes because they involved pulling out and then cleaning my flour sifter!
Well-written post! I would add the tip to SIFT flour any time there is cocoa powder involved in the recipe. Otherwise, you might end up with tiny white clumps of flour that just don’t look or taste great! That goes for using cake mixes too… I’ve learned to always sift those. In fact, my sister just used a pumpkin mix last night for whoopie pies and wondered about the little dark spots. It’s from the little clumps of dry mix that didn’t get fully incorporated. As annoying as it can be to add the extra step sometimes, it makes for a better finished product so it’s worth it… right? :)
i totally agree with the above and have been whisking instead of sifting for years.. my only exception is when i am making a cake that i want to as light as possible so i am as exact as possible. and one more thing i always do sift is cocoa. was making chocolate glaze yesterday with unsifted cocoa and it was hard to get rid of the small lumps.
I grew up in a place where there were sometime weevils (small bugs) in the flour when we bought it and that is why we sifted (gross, I know, but when you want cake….). I’ve never heard of this happening in New York, but I still sift everything. Old habits. :)
Thanks for the whisking suggestion for aeration!
you must have lived somewhere warm! we always had weevils in our flour in Florida, so much so we started storing our flour and sugar in the freezer!
I ALWAYS Sift the flour on my recipes.. i mean.. no big deal just an extra step on the recipe
Whew, now I don’t feel so bad for not actually sifting — I always just “fluff up” my flour with a whisk :)
Yeahhhh… I never sift unless it’s for chiffon cake. Whisk whisk whisk away!
I think I love you.
You can still find the old time sifter at Amazon. If my flour is really lumpy I will use mine.
Well I am inherently lazy so when I get my flour I shift 1.5kgs of flour all at once into my storage container. This helps (at least for me) makes sure it is a light as possible before going into goods. Great tips joy!
Thanks SO MUCH for breaking it down. Yeah, my flour has been in storage seemingly forever. Yeah, I feel guilty about using it. But I don’t have room in my tiny kitchen for a flour sifter, so knowing that I can whisk it and get just about the same effect is great. Not everyone has the time to do things 100% – sometimes we really need to know what works, not just what the recipe says. So thanks for being real.
I remember reading a version of all of your thoughts on this in your cookbook and it was so refreshing to read you didn’t sift. It was like, okay cool, now I can admit I almost never do either!
Thank you so much for your explanation, Joy! Just a few days ago, I was baking pumpkin muffins using a recipe that called for 6 cups sifted flour (we were doubling a recipe). I thought to myself, “do I really have to sift a whole bunch of flour just to measure out 6 cups?” Instead, I measured out 6 cups, sifted, which I know isn’t quite the same. At least I know I don’t have to run my flour through a sifter next time!
If you are not sifting your flour.. try it. … it will change your baking!!
I bake a lot. The only time I have ever noticed a difference due to sifting has been in super light fare like the aforementioned chiffon cakes. 92% of the time, there is no difference is you use a light hand and aerate with a whisk.
hmmm…. I definitely need to try “sifting” with a whisk. I always actually sift and it takes forever while making a huge mess.
I had no idea that sifting was aerating the flour! I used to think that sifting was mainly to remove lumps in the flour and I dragged myself to do it if the recipe called for it even though I was supppper lazy to! Now I know that all you need to do is whisk it, thanks for the tip Joy!
I love that I’m not the only one who uses the ol’ “whisking is just as good as sifting” trick.
I had a rather old fashioned flour sifter once upon a time, but really a whisk is just as good!
I love this new series you have started Joy. Even as someone who bakes a lot (a. lot) I could always use some brushing up on my skills.
Thanks Joy :)