In The Kitchen... Flour Sifters

 To sift or not is the question. For many years almost all baking recipes called for sifting the flour before measuring. Than the two biggest household flour mills came out with presifted flour and sifting went by the wayside. 

 Now days, I sift the flour and dry ingredients together after I have measured the flour because newer recipes allow for that and you can end up without enough flour if you sift before measuring. Weighing the ingredients helps eliminate the measuring problem, but sifting will insure that all of the dry ingredients are evenly mixed.

 Sifting will also remove small lumps from sugars, etc. I started using a sieve as so many of the TV cooks seemed to be doing, including Ina Garten and Martha. However, as I was rearranging my cupboards I got out my flour sifters and decided to try them again. 

 I am now back to using them and find they work so much better and much less mess. I still use a small sieve when I am sprinkling powder sugar on something I have baked. I have the nice small flatter one in the photo, thanks Bettie, which works well, but sifters are now my dry sifters of choice. 

 If you want to try them there are inexpensive ones on the market and you can than upgrade when they need to be replaced. It just takes a few minutes for that extra step in your baking prep and I think you will find it worth the time.
I gave the over-the-cup sifter (on the bottom in the picture) to Sue recently...she had broken hers and couldn't find a similar one again...she was ecstatic!

Here are some recipes that call for sifted flour or where sifting ingredients is helpful:

Best Ever Muffins

Russian Tea Cakes

Orange Lard Cake

Fresh Apple Cookies

Cornmeal Batter Rolls