What's the point of sifting flour?
What's the point of sifting flour?
Originally, the point of sifting flour used to be to remove lumps and the occasional insect, although modern flour is generally free of those concerns. If you don't buy pre-sifted flour, sifting can still be a good idea for a number of reasons.
First, it loosens up flour that has been sitting around in storage for a long time, aerating it and helping your baked goods to have a lighter texture. It's also a good idea to sift flour if you are combining it with other ingredients, such as salt, baking powder or soda, or cocoa powder, to give the mixture a homogeneous texture.
Flour can be sifted either with an old-fashioned sifter, or by shaking flour through a sieve. Dry ingredients can also be whisked together with a wire whisk in a pinch, which also helps lighten up the flour.
Nevertheless, some people think that sifting flour is a pain, and skip it altogether, claiming they don't notice the difference. Do you?
Recipe: Sour Cream Bundt Cake (VeganYumYum)
Recipe: Banana Hazelnut Upside-Down Cake (Hogwash)
A crumble is a fruit-based dessert with a crumbly topping called a streusel that's a mixture of flour, butter and sugar -- plus optional flavorings like cinnamon, vanilla extract, lemon zest or nuts -- that is baked until crisp. The flour, butter and sugar are combined until they form crumbs; some people like to add oats or nuts to the mixture.
Apple crumble is traditional, but you can make a crumble out of rhubarb, blackberries, plums or just about any fruit. A crumble is delicious warm or cold, plain or accompanied by a scoop of vanilla ice cream, heavy cream or custard.
The crumble is said to have been invented in Britain during World War II, when food rationing made pie crusts an impossibility. Americans sometimes call the crumble a crisp.
what you should know
In 1850, Seth Lewelling lit out for Oregon to grow fruit. His first success fruit was the Black Republican cherry, which he named in honor of the abolitionists trying to end slavery. (Back in Iowa, the Lewellings had been involved in the Underground Railroad.)
Lewelling named his next cherry after Ah Bing, the foreman who oversaw his orchards. The large, dark red Bing cherry was sweet, plump and crisp.
the pick When it was released in the mid-1870s, it became a sensation: one pound (roughly 35 cherries) sold for a dollar in East Coast markets. The Bing quickly became and still is the most widely grown of the sweet cherries.
tis the Cherries should start arriving right about now from central California (and, with them, "unquestionable proof" that summer is coming). In a couple of weeks, you'll start seeing Bings from Oregon and Washington state, where almost half the sweet cherries in the U.S. are grown.
low risk, high reward The Bing--like all sweet cherries--are low risk/high reward fruits. Look for cherries that are firm and shiny. Avoid soft or bruised fruit. Store cherries in the fridge, where they'll keep for a few days. (You can also freeze cherries.)
pit stop To pit a cherry, treat it like an olive. (Or get out a nail or paper clip.)
what you need
If you go in for those super-specific kitchen tools like the cherry pitter, we recommend the one made by OXO. (It'll also work for most olives.)
As with pitting olives, we get along just fine with a dough scraper.
Chez Panisse Fruit is filled with simple and refined stone fruit desserts.
what you do
Convert someone to spinach with this Bing cherry and Brie salad.
Cook & Eat explores the compatibility between sweet and savory in fruit and honey focaccia and a fennel and cherry salad.
As you enter grilling season in earnest, keep this rustic cherry pie (also from Cook & Eat) in mind.
One of the classic uses for Bings is in a cherry clafoutis, which is part of this week's installment of the Barbara Kafka Dessert Anthology.
(Top image courtesy of the California Cherry Advisory Board.)
Brown sugar is nothing more than white sugar (which is highly refined and made from cane or beets) that has been mixed with molasses to color it and give it a more moist texture. Light brown sugar has less molasses than dark brown sugar.
Brown sugar should not be confused with raw sugar, that has a similar color and taste but is actually the residue from processed sugarcane.
