When I first started baking, the thing I struggled with most was getting light, flavorful breads instead of dense breads. Breads that I would bite into and think, “But I followed the recipe! Why is it like this?” After a lot of cookbook reading (Yes, I have fallen prey to Katie’s reading a cookbook cover to cover…) and trial and error, I found that I added too much flour when kneading or rolling out baked goods, loaf breads or otherwise.
Enter my flour duster:
flour duster
It’s nothing extraordinary. I think it was less than $2 at Target one day and I thought that maybe I might use it to put powdered sugar on brownies or something one day…? Vague aspirations being what they are, I bought it. It is now one of the first things I reach for when baking. When a recipe said “lightly floured surface,” I would usually sprinkle flour with my hand on the counter and then also on the dough. Try as I might, there were always clumps here or there. Those clumps added a lot of flour to my dough, which made the dough too stiff. With a flour duster, I could actually have a “dusting” of flour!
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- flour-dusted counter
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- flour-dusted dough
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- No-Knead Bread
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- cornmeal-dusted dough
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- flour duster
Whether it’s for sprinkling powdered sugar on confections, flour for kneading or rolling Honey Whole Wheat bread, or cornmeal for rolling out English muffins, my flour duster is now a staple kitchen tool. Splurge on the $2! Your baking deserves it. 🙂
~ Theresa
Cooking for the Fam 