FryBoy
Washing Up
I'm fairly adventurous when I cook most things, but I'm a strict constructionist -- indeed, an originalist -- when it comes to baking, which I do infrequently. I'm also a literalist -- I assume that the recipe says what it means and means what it says, and that's what I do for fear of running my cake or whatever. But what I know about baking I learned from my mother like 45 years ago, and the rest is pretty much self-taught and limited to a "need to know basis."
I made a dessert today to take to my daughter's family tomorrow, just a simple bar cookie called Congo Squares, or something like that from one of our old cookbooks, sort of a blonde brownie with chocolate chips and nuts. The recipe called for "X cups of sifted flour." I've always interpreted that to mean something different from "X cups of flour, sifted." If it says "sifted flour," I sift a bunch of flour, then measure it; if it says "flour, sifted," I measure the flour, then sift it. My untested assumption is that sifting the flour first, then measuring it, results in slightly less flour than measuring the flour unsifted, which can affect the texture of the finished product.
So, my question to you more experienced bakers is whether my assumption is correct. Does it make a difference if I sift, then measure, or measure, then sift?
I made a dessert today to take to my daughter's family tomorrow, just a simple bar cookie called Congo Squares, or something like that from one of our old cookbooks, sort of a blonde brownie with chocolate chips and nuts. The recipe called for "X cups of sifted flour." I've always interpreted that to mean something different from "X cups of flour, sifted." If it says "sifted flour," I sift a bunch of flour, then measure it; if it says "flour, sifted," I measure the flour, then sift it. My untested assumption is that sifting the flour first, then measuring it, results in slightly less flour than measuring the flour unsifted, which can affect the texture of the finished product.
So, my question to you more experienced bakers is whether my assumption is correct. Does it make a difference if I sift, then measure, or measure, then sift?