When do you need to sift flour

Learn what is necessary for combining those dry ingredients for your favorite cookie recipes. When it comes to successfully baking delicate, delicious sweet treats at home, you might come across a recipe calling for sifted flour. But is sifting flour absolutely necessary? That depends.

For some desserts where the goal is to be light, delicate, and fluffy think angel food cake , sponge cakes , and chiffon cakes , sifting flour is recommended. For desserts that are chewy or crisp like cookies, sifting flour isn't a must. The purpose of sifting flour through a sieve or sifter helps break up clumps and aerates the ingredients.

In the past, sifted flour also allowed for more accurate measuring results. Read on to learn about sifting flour for cookies and what baking steps you should actually follow to produce the perfect results you want.

Fortunately, our Test Kitchen says you can skip the extra step of sifting flour when making cookies. When making baked items such as cookies and bars , your recipe instructions may tell you to measure all dry ingredients, such as flour, spices, cocoa, etc.

This process helps to combine everything evenly before they are mixed with other ingredients, such as eggs and butter. In the past, it was always necessary to sift in order to separate the flour from pieces of husk, seeds, and other debris, including bugs. It is a good idea, however, to always stir your flour before measuring, spoon it into your dry measuring cup, then level it off with a knife.

This ensures there are no odd clumps or air pockets in the flour and you get the exact measurement you need when baking those fabulous layer cakes for family reunions and other special events. There are some recipes that benefit from sifted flour. The flour in angel food or sponge cakes, for instance, should be sifted to eliminate and prevent lumps that would weigh down the batter. Well, I think that sifting flour is often a waste of time.

Traditionally, recipes ask you to sift ingredients as a way to aerate them and guarantee consistency between cup measurements, since cups of unsifted flour will vary widely in weight depending on how tightly the flour was packed in the bag. Sifting the flour helped promote consistency in recipe results by removing the larger particles that could potentially result in densely textured baked goods or even ones that would sink in the middle.

But modern techniques have improved significantly since then.