Never Waste Flour Again With One Genius Storage Trick

We've all been there. You reach for a bag of flour to sprinkle on your counter or baking pan, and suddenly, there's white powder everywhere. It goes up in the air, spills on the floor, and makes a huge mess. This may seem like a small problem, but it gets annoying if you bake a lot. Luckily, there's a simple solution, and it might already be in your kitchen: an empty seasoning shaker. 

While salt and pepper shakers aren't the same, either works in this case. Instead of scooping flour from the bag or trying to shake it out with a spoon, pour a few tablespoons into your clean, dry shaker instead. This gives you way more control over how much flour you use. It's less messy, and is especially helpful when you're working with sticky dough. Since you're only shaking out a little at a time, you also end up using less flour overall. 

This is an effective way to avoid using too much flour, which is one of the many mistakes beginner bakers make. This trick can help your recipe turn out better too. When you use too much flour on your surface, your dough can soak it up and become too dry. A shaker helps you use just enough, so your dough stays soft but still easy to handle.

There are many advantages to having a flour shaker on hand. For one, it helps when you need to dust a pan. After you grease it, just shake in a little flour and tap out any excess. You'll have just enough flour to stop food from sticking to the pan. A flour shaker is also a great idea if you have enthusiastic kids eager to help out in the kitchen. Giving them a shaker of flour instead of a bag or scoop makes the process much less messy. They'll feel like part of the process, and you don't have to stress as much about cleanup. 

To make this hack work, however, keep a few things in mind. Firstly, keep the shaker in a cool, dry place, since heat and moisture can create lumps.Never shake it over hot pots or wet dough, where steam can get inside. Next, be sure to label the shaker so no one confuses it with sugar or cornstarch. 

While this trick works great with flour, you can even get creative and create a few different shakers. Try it with cinnamon to dust muffins or rolls, or mix in cocoa powder to prep chocolate cake pans. The choice is yours; just be sure to stick to exclusively dry ingredients. Whether you're measuring your flour like Ina Garten or just freestyling in the kitchen, flour-related mistakes happen, but this tiny tip makes baking cleaner and easier.