Strain Unsweetened Cocoa
Straining unsweetened cocoa is a snap when you use this tip. Never have clumpy batters again!
Why You Need to Sift Cocoa Powder
It might seem like sifting dry ingredients is an unnecessary step, but it serves two purposes.
First, it gets the lumps out of the powder. As dry ingredients sit in a box or a bag, they start to compact and cling together.
It’s most evident with ingredients like brown sugar, but you’ll also see it with flour, cocoa powder and confectioners’ sugar, too. Running them through the sifter breaks up any clumps and prevents dry pockets from forming in your batter.
The second more important function is aeration.
Overmixing wet and dry ingredients is the easiest way to end up with a cake that falls flat or turns out dense.
If the dry ingredients are light and fluffy, it’ll be easier to incorporate them into the wet ingredients. This is especially important with delicate cakes, like pound cake or angel food cake.
You may have noticed that those clumps are incredibly difficult to break up, even with a whisk, once in your bowl of other ingredients.
If you don’t get rid of them, they can bake up into dry spots in your brownies. Take the extra few seconds to sift the amount of cocoa powder called for in the recipe with a sifter or a fine mesh strainer.
You can sift it onto a piece of wax or parchment paper before adding it to the other ingredients or you can even sift it right into the bowl.
Here’s What to Do When You Don’t Have a Sifter
Sifting flour is one of those secret tricks that can take your baked goods to the next level, but you don’t need a gadget to get the job done.
There are a few different ways to learn how to sift without a sifter, and one of them happens to be fast and easy.
Straining Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
Push the cocoa powder through a strainer, after measuring it and before adding it to your recipe.
Unsweetened cocoa contains cocoa butter, which can cause it to clump. To make sure it combines evenly with the rest of the dry ingredients in your recipe, it’s best to strain it.
Whisk together the dry ingredients, then add them to the wet ones, stirring until the mixture is evenly combined.
How to Sift Without a Sifter
The most common substitution for a flour sifter is a fine mesh strainer.
Unlike bulky flour sifters, strainers are multitaskers. You can use them to drain pasta, remove the bones from simmering stock, line them with cheesecloth to make labneh cheese from yogurt or use them to sift and mix dry ingredients for baked goods.
Simply load the dry ingredients into the bowl of the strainer, hold it with one hand and tap it against the other hand to move the ingredients through.
An even easier and faster way to sift dry ingredients is to add them to a large bowl and mix them using a balloon whisk. Most small clumps will be broken up by the tines of the whisk, and the whisking motion also adds air to the flour, aerating as it mixes.
Tips For Using Cocoa Powder
Make Chocolate extract. Chocolate extract can be used to add flavor to cookies, cakes, puddings, dessert dishes such as chocolate mousse, frosting cake filling, drinks (milk-based), orange juice, and alcoholic beverages.
Research Wikihow, Taste of Home, The Kitchn
Most images in my Tip Friday Series use free stock photos.
This article is part of the Tips That Help in the Kitchen Series, Tip Friday.
Love this tip! Thanks so much for sharing over at #FridayFrivolity 🙂
I have a whole bunch of cocoa lovers in my house so this will really come in handy Marilyn. Thank you for the great tip. I am telling my girls as I type. Pinning.
You are welcome Mary. It is the little things that take the frustration out of baking.
I had no idea why cocoa clumped, now I feel much better about using it! LOL But this will make it so much easier to evenly blend. I have no idea how you come up with a tip each week, I love them. I’m learning so much from you! Thanks!
I do a lot of reading and a lot of baking. I also make many mistakes as well as being lazy! Thanks Nikki.
Great tip!! Thanks for sharing with us at Throwback Thursday!!
Mollie
You are welcome Mollie! See you soon.
I never thought of doing something lie this! Thanks for sharing with the Tips and Tricks Link Party
Thank you for sharing. I love that party!
Now there is an important lesson to learn to keep the ingredients well mixed and even with the cocoa;
I dont use cocoa often but this tip will make me rethink.
I always love your tips and this is another very helpful one! Thanks so much for sharing them with us at Share The Wealth Sunday!
You are very welcome Lisa. My tips are my easiest posts!
Never knew this Marilyn. Always learning something here. Thanks for sharing this tip at Party at My Place.
I don’t use cocoa often, but this tip really helps. I hate lumps.
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This is a great tip Marilyn! Thanks for sharing at the Sunday Fitness & Food Link-Up, Pinned 🙂
You are welcome Angela. Thanks for hosting!
Such a great tip! 🙂
I would love for you to share this with my AMAZING Facebook Group with over 300 Members to share easy craft projects and recipes: https://www.facebook.com/groups/pluckyrecipescraftstips
Thanks for joining Cooking and Crafting with J & J!
Thanks for the visit and the comment! Have a wonderful day.
What a great tip, Marilyn. I would never have thought to strain cocoa powder but it makes so much sense! Thanks for sharing on Family Joy Blog Link-Up Party. Have a great week!
Thanks Cristina! It’s like straining flour. Have a wonderful day.
Not the most fun task but very necessary. Thank you!
Exactly. I always regret when I try to take shortcuts. Have a wonderful day.
You are sooooooo right!
Very important to strain the cocoa. It’s a bit messy, but important!
I usually weightit after staining it though…..
Weighing it is important since the density changes. Have a wonderful day.
DIG unsweetened cocoa! We use it alot here so it really does not have the chance to clump! Good tip to know tho”! Many thanks for linking up at Small Victories Sunday, Marilyn!!!
Thank you CS. I am glad to hear that fresh doesn’t clump as much. As I don’t use it much I would never know!
Great tip. I don’t used it often so sometimes it does get lumpy. Thanks for sharing. I’m signed up for your emails so I get notice of all your posts! I hope you’ll come over and visit me. I have a great DVD giveaway going on right now. Come over and check it out!
I only have a recipe or two that uses it. I hate working with it! Checked out your blog. it is darling! Added you on G+!