How to Sift Flour

Learn how to sift flour like a professional, the key to light-as-air cookies, cakes, and all your best pastries. Here’s how (and when) to do it, and why it matters.
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Cook Time 1 minute
Total Time 1 minute
Course Pantry
Cuisine American
Servings 4 servings
Calories 112 kcal

Ingredients
  

  • 1 cup all-purpose flour or other flour or dry ingredients

Instructions
 

To sift with a fine-mesh strainer:

  • Over a sheet of parchment paper, foil, or a bowl, add flour (or any dry ingredients) to a fine-mesh strainer and tap the side with one hand. Anything left in the bottom can be pushed through with a spoon.

To sift with a flour-sifter:

  • Over a sheet of parchment paper, foil, or a bowl, add flour (or any dry ingredients) to sifter cup. Squeeze handle to activate the blades repeatedly until sifted flour falls out the bottom of the cup.

Notes

  1. Why do it: When a modern recipe calls for sifted flour, it usually means that the recipe requires fluffier, aerated flour, or flour without any lumps. As it is packaged, shipped, and stored, flour settles in the bag. Sifting lightens it up again. It also creates space for the other components in the recipe to get in between the flour particles and do their work. Cakes become fluffier, pancakes lighter; you get the idea.
  2. When to do it: Should you sift flour for all recipes, even if they don’t specify? No. Commercial flour has already been sifted several times, so unless the recipe you are reading specifically requires it, you shouldn’t have to take the extra step.
  3. Sift then measure, or measure then sift: This is important. And it’s easy to determine if you read your particular recipe carefully.
    • If the recipe calls for 3 cups sifted flour, then you need to pre-sift the flour into a bowl and then measure the flour.
    • If the recipe calls for 3 cups flour, sifted, then measure the flour first, and then sift it.
  4. Sifting other ingredients: Sifting is not just for flour! Dry ingredients like salt, baking soda, baking powder, or dry milk are sometimes sifted together, in order to distribute them better. And cocoa powder or powdered sugar are often sifted to remove lumps.
  5. Whisk: If you don't have a fine-mesh sieve, just add the flour to a dry bowl and whisk it briskly.
  6. Best way to measure flour: Spoon the flour out of the bag and directly into the measuring cup. Make a high mound on the top of the cup, then level off the measuring cup using the back of a knife. 
  7. Wrong way to measure flour: Do not scoop or dip the cup into the flour because it packs the flour into the cup and will result in too much flour in your recipe. Also, never dip, tap, tamp, jiggle, shake, or pack flour down into the measuring cup.

Nutrition

Calories: 112kcal
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