When it’s baking chaos, having a flour sifter within reach can be a godsend. Not only can you quickly dust surfaces and dredge finely-sieved flour into mixtures, you know that you don’t have to get sticky hands near the flour bag or have stray mixture or liquids dampen the contents.
Choose a sifter considering the type of bake you prefer, and where it will be stored, as those with handles, for example, take up a bit more space than simple canisters.
If you’re a frequent baker you’ll be able to keep flour stored in an airtight sifter for use as and when you want it, rather than dipping into a larger store – useful when dealing with ready-rolled pastry, for example.
Read on to discover the best flour sifters, tried and tested by our expert reviewer. To read more unbiased buyer’s guides, visit our reviews section and find guides to everything from baking equipment to stand mixers.
The best flour sifters to buy online
ProCook flour sifter
Best bargain sifter
A great price for a sturdy, easy -to-use stainless steel sifter, just pull the trigger to move the shutter back and forth and keep the flour moving through the sieve. The measurement lines for 125g and 250g stamped on the outside made quick work of our favourite lemon sponge recipe, sifting just the right amount into the mixer bowl.
Available from:
ProCook (£5)
Amazon (£5)
Judge fine mesh shaker
Best sifter for storage
A no-nonsense choice of sifter that comes with a handy plastic cover to pop over the dusting mesh to prevent kitchen spills clogging flour. This choice worked best for dusting icing sugar on cookies and cocoa on cappucinos – the fine guage mesh didn’t suit heavier flours as well. No handle meant it was easy to store.
Available from:
Horwood (£8)
Amazon (£9.98)
Marcato flour dispenser
Best sifter for bread-making
A serious flour dispenser for the serious business of making pasta and bread. The bullet shape makes it easy to grip, with a domed gauze top filtering the flour perfectly. This utilitarian choice looks great in any kitchen and, being made of aluminium alloy, will sift for years to come.
Available from:
Borough Kitchen (£28)
Amazon (£35.99)
OXO Good Grips dusting wand
Best for fine dusting
This light and delicate duster suits the ‘wand’ descriptor. Waft it over cakes and cookies and a delicate shower of icing sugar will magically coat them. Use it for cocoa on a cappuccino – we like using these templates from ProCook – and for other small-scale finishing. This isn’t a choice for larger bakes, however, as there’s not much capacity.
Available from Lakeland (£9.99)
Tala indigo and ivory flour sifter
Best for big bakes
We liked the retro good looks of this large-capacity sifter, which stayed to hand on the worktop during a bread-making session. The ridged sides made it easy to grip and the trigger had a nice, smooth action when dusting flour. We brushed it out rather than washing, as per instructions, as some corners may be tricky to dry before using again.
Available from:
Tala (£13.75)
Amazon (£10.24)
Divertimenti (£18.50)
Mason Cash Innovative Kitchen roller shaker
Best for versatility
We’re all for space saving in the kitchen and with this ceramic shaker, there are three uses in one. Remove the silicone stopper in one end and fill with flour, shaking – although not sifting – from the punched holes in the other end. Then use as a rolling pin before using the handy measure on the side to perfect that pie top. Ingenious, though breakable!
Joseph Joseph Shake-It Self-Tapping sieve
Best for cake mix
When you have your hands full in a baking session, this is ingenious, as you don’t need to use another hand to tap, tap, tap on the side to send a fine dusting of flour, sugar or cocoa over your dish. Shake your hand and its steel handle waggles gently from side to side within the outer casing, sending finely sieved ingredients to the bowl below.
Mary Berry with Lakeland flour sifter
Best for small cakes
This is a really useful small-capacity shaker. The plastic top kept flour fresh and protected from spills, so we could stash it away in the cupboard without having to empty contents back into the flour bin before we needed it again. Due to its dinkiness, it’s best used for dusting rather than adding sifted flour to mixes.
Available from Lakeland (£3.99)
How we tested flour sifters
We got busy with the baking, using smaller, finer sieved shakers for the delicate jobs such as decorating cupcakes and sponges with icing sugar.
The larger, trigger types came into their own when adding quantities of super-fine flour into cake mixes to ensure a lighter bake. Bread-making called for sifters with wider punch-hole tops, for easy distribution of flour on worktops and boards.
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This review was last updated in December 2020. If you have any questions, suggestions for future reviews or spot anything that has changed in price or availability please get in touch at goodfoodwebsite@immediate.co.uk.
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