As I understand it, one usually wants to sift flour if you are using it in more delicate pastry recipes to ensure there are no clumps in the batter or dough you are using.
Most sourdough processes involve pretty vigorous mixing, and long amounts of time to get everything hydrated properly.
It depends on what country I'm in. I started sifting to remove lumps, bugs, worms, needles, plastic, wood slivers, threads, paper and anything else that didn't belong in the flour.
I'm now in Austria and as of yet, found no reason to sift bagged flour here. No flour bins or loose flour to purchase.
I have sifted coarse rye flour to feed my starter the chunkier bits. Get ahead on the soaking of bran that way.
I mill my own wheat, and my stores don't carry hard white wheat berries, only red. If I want to make a light-colored loaf (like if I'm making a 50% kamut and I want the color of the kamut to come through) I will sift the bran off of the hard red and toss it. When I make spelt cake I usually sift and toss the bran. For any bread that is ok with a dark color, I don't sift: instead, I autolyse.
No, Ive never sifted my flour.
As I understand it, one usually wants to sift flour if you are using it in more delicate pastry recipes to ensure there are no clumps in the batter or dough you are using.
Most sourdough processes involve pretty vigorous mixing, and long amounts of time to get everything hydrated properly.
It depends on what country I'm in. I started sifting to remove lumps, bugs, worms, needles, plastic, wood slivers, threads, paper and anything else that didn't belong in the flour.
I'm now in Austria and as of yet, found no reason to sift bagged flour here. No flour bins or loose flour to purchase.
I have sifted coarse rye flour to feed my starter the chunkier bits. Get ahead on the soaking of bran that way.
I mill my own wheat, and my stores don't carry hard white wheat berries, only red. If I want to make a light-colored loaf (like if I'm making a 50% kamut and I want the color of the kamut to come through) I will sift the bran off of the hard red and toss it. When I make spelt cake I usually sift and toss the bran. For any bread that is ok with a dark color, I don't sift: instead, I autolyse.