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Debate: Should you sift flour even when the recipe says it's optional? My grandma vs my sister-in-law
Last Thanksgiving at my sister-in-law's house in Portland, I watched her skip sifting for a batch of cookies. Grandma would have had a fit. I tried her cookies and they were actually fine. But Grandma's cakes always came out fluffier. Which side are you on?
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hugotaylor2mo ago
The key thing I learned from baking a lot is that it really depends on what you're making. Tried sifting for a flourless chocolate cake once and it was a mess, totally unnecessary. But for something like angel food cake or a really delicate sponge, skipping the sift gives you dense pockets. My go-to test was making banana bread both ways, and honestly I couldn't tell the difference in texture, but for cookies where you want them to spread evenly, a quick sift through a fine mesh strainer makes a difference in how they brown. So your grandma probably had the right idea for cakes, but your sister-in-law might have been fine for those cookies.
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paige1662mo ago
Oh totally get that, my friend Jen tried to skip sifting for a batch of snickerdoodles once and they came out looking like lumpy pancakes. She thought she could just whisk the flour real quick but ended up with flour bombs in every other bite. Now she's a total sifting convert for cookies at least, but she still doesn't bother for her chocolate chip ones cause they never spread right anyway.
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evan_davis2mo ago
Did you see that test kitchen article where they proved sifting doesn't matter for most cookies lol?
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