Whats The Point Of Sifting Flour??
Decorating By amiegirl Updated 5 Aug 2007 , 7:11pm by novacaine24
This is something that was taught to me in 7th grade Home Ec class.
First, it depends on how the recipe is written:
"1 cup, sifted" means measure one cup of flour, then sift it.
"1 sifted cup" means sift the flour then measure one cup of it.
Sifting adds air and removes clumps. The difference between a sifted cup of flour and a non-sifted cup of flour is something like 2 tsps or 2 tbsps (come on, it WAS 7th grade which was WAY too long ago for me to remember exactly!).
So if your recipe calls for sifted flour and you're not sifting it, your cake or baked item will have too much flour and will end up "heavy".
not sure how much water my rationale can hold, BUT
i 'sift' because alton brown told me to do it.
i know it can make a difference in how compacted it is, and for this reason i ONLY weigh my ingredients. a cup of dense/non aerated flour won't measure the same....i don't want my whims to affect my cake baking, there fore i weigh all my dry ingredients into the food processor and pulse them, this is 'mine/AB's' form of 'sifting'
yes, to aerate.....
sally
Sally makes a good point ..... weight vs. volume.
So in addtion to my comments above, if you are sifting your flour when the recipe does NOT call for it, and then measure the 1 cup, you're not using enough flour in the item and the product may fail on you.
I keep a whisk in my flour bucket. I sift my flour in the bucket prior to measuring out the needed amounts. I've never had a problem with my cakes at all. I just do it with all of my baking. No lumps...aerates the flour...fluffier...JMO. Again, another tip from high school home ec. teacher....about a hundred years ago! LOL. I can't tell you what I did 5 minutes ago, but I remember something from high school 20 years ago. LOL. Go figure!
Amy
Every recipe (especially with baking) that calls for flour is assuming you aerate it before you scoop it. You should always run a whisk through your flour before you scoop. A recipe that states 1 cup of flour is going under the assumption that your cup of all purpose flour weighs roughly 4.5 ounces.. cake flour weighs roughly 4.25 ounces.. bread flour weighs roughly 4.8 ounces..
That is why to get the best results.. you should weigh your dry ingredients. 
*not sure how much water my rationale can hold, BUT
i 'sift' because alton brown told me to do it.
LOL. The things we do because Alton tells us - this is my rationale to many things also! My DH thinks we're all in a crazy cult planning world domination. I tell him at least it will be a very logical and orderly world! 
[/quote]
Quote by @%username% on %date%
%body%