In fact, it’s most often a good thing to do as it helps prevent lumps of flour in your batter/dough. The author of the recipe probably decided that it wasn’t necessary to sift the flour in this particular recipe and wanted to make sure that your were measuring your flour with the correct volume.

Unsifted flour is the total opposite of pre-sifted flour. Unlike pre sifted flour, you would see a good number of lumps and chunks in unsifted flour. However, if your recipe even called for pre sifted flour. You can easily sift up your unsifted flour and use it in your recipe.

Four All-Purpose Flour Alternatives

• Chickpea Flour. Relatively new to American households, chickpea flour (also called garbanzo bean flour or besan in Indian kitchens) is arguably one of my favorite ingredients.
• Rice Flour.
• Almond Flour.
• Buckwheat Flour.
• Buckwheat Flour Flapjacks.

What sifting does is aerates the flour (and other ingredients) to make them light. One cup of unsifted flour weighs 5 ounces, and 1 cup of sifted flour weighs 4 ounces.

Sifting flour separates and aerates the particles. Most all-purpose flours on the market are presifted (and labeled as such), requiring only that they be stirred, then spooned into a measuring cup and leveled off. You may need to resift flour when making cakes or pastries if you want a fine texture.

Here’s why: A cup of flour sifted before measuring will weigh 20 to 30 percent less than a cup of flour sifted after measuring—a difference that can make a huge impact on the texture of finished baked goods.

The purpose of sifting is to make the amount of flour in a given volume reliable. (If you are measuring by weight, you don’t need to sift.) By moving around the sifted flour, or pouring it from one container into another, you are changing the way it is packed.

There is a big difference in the weight or amount of flour. 1 cup flour, sifted means you put the flour into the cup and then sift it. 1 cup sifted flour means to set the cup on a counter and sift the flour into the cup until it mounds above the top. Then, with a metal spatula or knife, level it off.

The answer to this question usually depends on the recipe’s grammar: If the recipe calls for “2 cups sifted flour,” you should sift the flour into a bowl, then measure it. However, if the recipe calls for “2 cups flour, sifted,” you should measure the flour first, then sift it.

If your recipe reads “1 cup flour, sifted”, spoon flour into a measuring cup level to the rim and then sift. If your recipe reads “1 cup sifted flour”, spoon flour directly into the sifting tool and sift over the measuring cup and level off the flour at the rim.

A fine-meshed strainer is best, but any old strainer or even a colander can work in a pinch. If you don’t have a strainer handy, you can also mix flour with a wire whisk or a fork. You won’t get the flour quite as light as when sifting, but this will work to break up any clumps and fluff up the flour a bit.

Putting your flour through a sifter will break up any lumps in the flour, which means you can get a more accurate measurement. Sifted flour is much lighter than unsifted flour and is easier to mix into other ingredients when making batters and doughs.

To spoon and level the flour, you’ll start by fluffing the flour a little with a spoon to aerate the flour. Then you’ll spoon the flour into the measuring cup. You want to fill the measuring cup all the way to the top and let the flour flow over a little. Then, you’ll use the back of a knife to level the top off.

brown sugar

The tool used to level off dry ingredients is a metal spatula or the flat side of a knife. There are lots of kinds of a spatula and they have their own unique different use, It is much better to use a metal spatula that is used for the kitchen.