Deep Dive No. 4: To sift or not to sift

that is the question

Pastry School 101 was primarily developed to answer all of your burning baking questions—How do you make a custard without lumps? (coming soon) Why do we chill cookie dough? What does whipping eggs actually do? And most importantly, do we really NEED to sift our flour before using it?

When I first started brainstorming deep dive ideas for this newsletter, sifting was at the top of the list. There are way too many recipes floating out there in the world asking you to sift your flour before using, a step that more often than not completely dissuades people from making a particular recipe. So today, we’re going to answer it once and for all…do I really need to sift my flour before baking? The answer is no…and yes. I’ll explain—let’s jump right in.

my baby sifter is used for everything from sifting small amounts of cocoa powder to catching lemon seeds