Fluffing and Sifting Flour - Tip of the Day

by Monika Bartyzel, Posted May 6th 2009 @ 9:00AM

You can fluff flour, and you can sift it. But do you know the difference?

Often the words "fluff" and "sift" get used interchangeably when you're dealing with flour, but there is a difference. Fluffing flour is much like fluffing a pillow -- jostling it about to redistribute the compacted particles. As a discussion over at Kraftfoods.com explains, fluffing flour involves scooping it and letting it fall to prevent a compacted and heavier flour measurement. (And just to make things more confusing, you can also "loosen" the flour to achieve the same result.) Sifting, on the other hand, is the process of aerating flour in order to produce lighter baked goods, whether by using one of those metal contraptions or a basic sieve.

But if you really want to be a baking master, you can end a lot of the fuss by weighing flour. Fluffing, after all, was invented because the weight of one cup of flour can vary wildly, whereas a scale's measurement never does. Fluffing and sifting may yield debate -- and unnecessary hassle -- but a good scale can yield indubitably delicious baked goods.

Filed Under: Tip of the Day
Tags: flour, fluffing flour, FluffingFlour, measuring flour, MeasuringFlour, sifting flour, SiftingFlour, weighing flour, WeighingFlour

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

5-06-2009 @1:49PM Astin said... I weigh just about all my dried ingredients these days. It eliminates so much confusion. It also helps elimate some mess when measuring semi-solid ingredients like butter or lard.

If a recipe calls for sifted flour, I drop it into the food processor and pulse for a couple seconds.
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