Is there some magically easy way to sift that I don't know about? I need to sift about 3 1/2c. of powdered sugar and it's a huge PAIN! I have a large hand-held regular old sifter and at this rate I'll have it done AFTER Christmas. Any tricks or is that just the way it is? LOL

By Kate on Friday, December 22, 2006 - 04:46 pm:

What are you doing with it? I never sift anything, no matter what the recipe says. Maybe you can avoid it entirely.

By Happynerdmom on Friday, December 22, 2006 - 04:49 pm:

I just use a big sieve and hit the side of it. Goes fast.

By Reds9298 on Friday, December 22, 2006 - 08:52 pm:

It's 3 1/2c. that goes into a Gooey Butter Cake (which I love!). I just haven't made it for a while and thought - ugh - too much work! I wondered about that Kate...if I could not do it at all. I made it one day last week and DIDN'T sift (trying to avoid) and I didn't think it tasted quite right. I ended up dumping it. I've always loved it when I made it before, so not sure if the not-sifting had anything to do with it or not???

Maybe I'll just hit the side of my sifter. Never even thought of that. Thank you girls!

By Dawnk777 on Friday, December 22, 2006 - 09:26 pm:

I never sift anything. I used to have a sifter, but through a bunch of moves, it disappeared, or it's lurking in a box that probably never got unpacked. My stuff turns out just fine.

By Sandysmom on Friday, December 22, 2006 - 10:10 pm:

Deanna, I use the kind of sifter that is in the link below except it is rounded on the bottom and was only 3.99 at the grocery store. It works so much faster. Just tap it on the side.


sifter

By Dawnk777 on Friday, December 22, 2006 - 10:37 pm:

I have a sieve similar to that. I never think to use it for sifting.

By Hol on Friday, December 22, 2006 - 11:18 pm:

I have a flour sifter that I've had ever since I got married. It is just a hand crank thing. I tap the sides, too, when the flour gets too much up on the sides. I do sift my flour and sift all of my dry ingredients together.

To sift powdered sugar, I put it in a seive like yours, Sandy, with the rounded bottom, and rub a spoon over the sugar in a clock-wise manner. It sifts it nice and fine. I did that just last night to "dust" some powdered sugar onto a pan of gingerbread that I made for DS Mike to bring to school today.

He called me from work last night at 7:30 and said that he needed me to go online and look up a recipe for Australian Plum Pudding, and that he would bring home the ingredients. (He works in a grocery store). It seems that they were doing a study unit on Australia, and he was supposed to bring in a dessert from Australia for their Christmas party. Nice time to tell me! I told him that plum pudding takes hours and that I was NOT going to start it at 10:00 at night when he got home. So, we baked a gingerbread instead, and I downloaded and printed a recipe from an Australian TV station for gingerbread. Kids!! DH said that it is because I always make everything look so easy. R-I-I-GHT!!

By Reds9298 on Saturday, December 23, 2006 - 08:48 am:

Thanks everyone! Sandy, I haven't seen those, but also haven't looked. I'll pick one up because that would be easier!

Hol - That's the kind I have and it's a pain.

By Pamt on Saturday, December 23, 2006 - 10:09 am:

I bake weekly and I have never sifted in my life.

By Hol on Saturday, December 23, 2006 - 11:02 am:

Pam - I am way older than you are. It was mandatory for girls to take two years of cooking and two years of sewing when I was in school. We learned the old-fashioned way of doing everything. I even remember learning how to make hot chocolate in a double boiler with shaved, unsweetened baking chocolate and other ingredients, such as sugar and PURE vanilla extract. I would never go to that much trouble now, but it WAS extremely tasty. We were taught to put hot milk into our mashed potatoes, and to make a "Fluffy Tapioca" that was SO-O-O good. It was a "sin" if you didn't sift, and then we were taught to sift our dry ingredients together, too, to really blend them (it DOES work very well). One hint that I will never forget, and it makes perfect sense, is, when you are putting eggs into a recipe, break them into a cup, one by one, rather than into your ingredients. That way, if you get a "bad" egg (which happened more before factory farming), that you didn't spoil all of your ingredients, and have to throw them out.
I remember having a very strict home economics teacher, but she was determined that we would learn the "right" way to do things. She would put Rachel Ray to shame. LOL!

By Pamt on Saturday, December 23, 2006 - 12:34 pm:

Hol, I took home ec too. It was just for one year, but I think all boys and girls should have to take it. We also took shop except it was called "industrial arts"--LOL

By Hol on Saturday, December 23, 2006 - 04:24 pm:

I so agree, Pam. I remember my oldest DS taking sewing in the public school. He knew how to sew on his own buttons, etc. I would have LOVED to take shop but girls couldn't in those days. I would have loved to learn carpentry. My Dad was very gifted in that area (he could make or fix anything), but he, too, believed that girls should learn to knit, crochet, sew, cook etc. but not woodworking or plumbing, etc.. I once thought of joining the Navy when I got out of high school and my Dad said that "nice" girls didn't go in the military. LOL!

By Dawnk777 on Saturday, December 23, 2006 - 09:00 pm:

My girls both took 3 months of sewing, 3 months of food prep, and 3 months of "tech ed", when they were in 6th grade.

Then, both of my kids took cooking classes as an elective, again, in middle school, later on. At least once, anyway. That was for a semester. I can't remember if they did it in both 7th grade and 8th grade or not. In 6th grade it was mandatory. Later on, an elective.

They both love to cook and do a good job! (I don't sift, though.)