Have you ever seen a recipe that calls for sifting the dry ingredients together? Maybe you’ve wondered if it’s really necessary. Spoiler alert: most of the time it’s a good idea, so don’t skimp on it.
But why do we sift them? There are a couple of reasons. The first reason is to add air into the batter by separating the dry ingredients for maximum fluffiness. This is a big deal for some baked goods, such as angel food cake, where you are trying to trap as much air as possible into it for it to properly turn out. The other main reason is to remove lumps. Some ingredients like flour, powdered sugar, and cocoa powder settle during shipping to the store and can clump together. By sifting them, you can make sure your batter doesn’t have any lumps in it.
How do we sift the ingredients? You have a couple choices here, based on space in your kitchen. There is a device called a sifter which looks kind of like an old school coffee can with a handle. The handle has a squeeze mechanism that as you press it, causes the contents inside the sifter to be pressed through a fine mesh. It works well, but if you don’t have the space for it can be a little clunky to store. The other option is just a fine mesh sieve. You will have to manually shake or press the ingredients through it. It works just as well as the sifter but is a little more compact for storage.
Not every recipe calls for sifting, and that’s ok. If the recipe doesn’t call for it, I generally don’t sift my ingredients unless they are looking extra clumpy. You just want to make sure that your dry ingredients aren’t leaving pockets in your batter that don’t get mixed in.
Do you sift your dry ingredients? Did you know that it can be beneficial?