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?
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Like chocolate, cocoa powder is made from the pod-covered cocoa beans of the cacao tree.
Cocoa powder is produced from a dried paste called chocolate liquor that is left after 3/4 of the cocoa butter is extracted from fermented, dried, roasted and cracked cocoa nibs. Hardened chocolate liquor is ground into unsweetened cocoa powder, which can be used to make hot chocolate or in baked goods.
Dutch cocoa is treated to neutralize its natural acidity and has a rich chocolate brown color.
