The 7 Best Flour Sifters, Tested and Reviewed

Best Overall

Bellemain Stainless Steel 3-Cup Flour Sifter

Orig. $28 $20 at Amazon

A basic crank-style sifter is a favorite among bakers, and this 3-cup sifter shows precisely why that is. This sifter is tough enough to handle different types of flour and other coarse ingredients, like bran or almond meal. The canister has measurement markings engraved into the metal to read on the inside of the sifter, with the 3-cup mark hitting below the angled top, so it can actually hold a bit more. Thanks to the markings, you can do a rough measure as you add flour to the sifter—although using a measuring cup will be more accurate—or use the marks to judge how much more you have left to sift. The sifting mechanism worked well in testing, and the sifter was comfortable to hold while in use.

The manufacturer recommends wiping this clean with a cloth or hand washing it, but we threw caution to the wind and tossed it in the dishwasher. It suffered no ill effects, but it’s possible it could begin rusting with continued exposure to water.

Material: Stainless steel | Capacity: 3 cups | Dishwasher Safe: Yes, but hand-washing recommended

Best with Squeeze Handle

Cuisipro Scoop and Sift Flour Sifter

$25 at Amazon $17 at Walmart View on Cuisipro.com

Crank-handled sifters are quite popular but require two hands to operate. This squeeze-handled sifter can be operated with just one hand. I liked that feature during testing, and it worked quickly, but someone with weak grip strength might find that squeezing a bit tiring if there’s a lot of sifting to be done.

You can even scoop the flour directly into the sifter rather than pouring it in with a measuring cup, and we particularly liked that feature in testing. The handle is designed so you can hang the sifter on your bowl while you’re working with other ingredients, so it will stay neatly out of the way while you combine wet and dry ingredients. When done cooking, this is top-rack dishwasher safe and came out of the dishwasher completely clean.

Material: Plastic | Capacity: 3 cups | Dishwasher Safe: Yes

Best Large Capacity

Williams Sonoma 5-Cup Stainless Steel Flour Sifter

$25 at Williams-Sonoma

If you only use your sifter for flour, you may not need to wash it often, but if you plan on using the sifter to combine ingredients, washing between uses will keep your baked goods tasting fresh. But as every baker knows, flour and water make a sticky goo, and sifters have a lot of small nooks and crannies, making them difficult to clean.

This sifter looks deceptively small—about the size of a typical 3-cup sifter. But since the screen is set lower and the top is straight, it holds more while taking less storage space. This can hold up to 5 cups of flour at once, although we preferred to fill it less than all the way full.

This sifter has four wires for moving the flour against the screen, so sifting is fast and efficient, and cranking is easy. This sifter is dishwasher safe, so you can let the machine do all the work for you. In testing, it came out of the dishwasher perfectly clean, with no signs of rust.

Material: Stainless steel | Capacity: 5 cups | Dishwasher Safe: Yes

Best Budget

Webake Fine Mesh Round Sieve

$15 at Amazon

For the price of most single sifters, this set offers two different flat sifters like the ones used in bakeries and restaurants. Known for professional use as a tamis, this sifter provides plenty of space for flour on the mesh bottom for quicker sifting. They're great when there's a lot of baking and just as helpful for smaller jobs, such as when you need powdered sugar to top a Bundt cake. With no moving parts, these are easy to use—shake from side to side or hold the sifter with one hand and tap the opposite side like a tambourine. In testing, these sifted quickly and efficiently using either method, although they spread the flour quite a bit wider than traditional crank sifters.

This includes a 6-inch sifter with a 40-mesh screen and an 8-inch sifter with a 60-mesh screen. Beyond sifting flour and other dry ingredients, they can be used for straining liquids. We've used this type of sifter for straining the whey from homemade yogurt to create a thick Greek-style yogurt, with no other cloth or filter needed. This model also has a loop on one side to hang on a hook for easy storage.

Material: Stainless steel | Capacity: 4 cups (6-inch sifter) and nearly 7 cups (8-inch sifter) | Dishwasher Safe: Yes

Best Mini

OXO Good Grips Baker’s Dusting Wand

$18 at Amazon $12 at Sur La Table View on Webstaurantstore.com

While you certainly won't use this for sifting flour for a cake, it's the best flour sifter for dispensing small amounts. It's perfect for dusting cocoa powder, powdered sugar, or cinnamon onto cupcakes, cookies, or drinks like hot chocolate, lattes, or eggnog. It can also be used for lightly dusting flour onto your work surface before rolling out dough or for dusting powdered sugar or cocoa powder to stencil a cake. The small size gives you the precision to dust the center of a cookie or cupcake without spreading powdered sugar everywhere. 

In testing, we had fun with it, dusting everything in sight with a light coating of powdered sugar. It's easy to use; you simply shake it or tap it gently to sprinkle the powdered sugar onto a small area, and it's small enough to dip easily into a container to fill it. When you're finished dusting, this hand-held tool is dishwasher-safe for easy cleaning.

Material: Stainless steel | Capacity: 1 to 2 tablespoons | Dishwasher Safe: Yes

Best Electric

Norpro Battery Operated Sifter

$19 at Amazon Orig. $26 $17 at Walmart

No matter how you do it, sifting flour can be tedious if there’s a lot of baking to be done. This battery-operated sifter makes it simple since there’s no need for cranking, squeezing, or shaking to get flour through the mesh screen—just press the button and let the sifter do all the manual work. In testing, we were impressed with the speed of sifting—it's much faster than a crank-style sifter, and it was surprisingly fun to use.

Made from white plastic with a stainless steel mesh screen, this sifter looks clean and attractive while in use, and it holds a whopping 5 cups of flour, so there’s no need to refill over and over when there are a lot of cakes to bake. The sifter requires one C battery (not included).

Due to the electronic components, this model isn’t dishwasher safe, but it can be partially disassembled for more thorough cleaning. We found that brushing it with a pastry brush was effective at removing most of the flour, followed by a wipe with a damp cloth.

Material: Plastic | Capacity: 5 cups | Dishwasher Safe: No

Best for Countertop Dusting

Tovolo 1-Cup Scoop & Sift

$13 at Amazon $14 at Walmart

This ingenious sifter is a multi-purpose tool that can live happily right in your flour bin. It measures one cup of flour and can easily double as a scoop when you don’t need precise measures. Sifting flour is easy; gently shake the scoop or tap the side to distribute. In testing, we were pleasantly surprised that the flour didn’t immediately start falling through the screen, so we could get the sifter over our work surface without leaving a dusty white trail on the countertop.

While this might not be the best choice if there’s a lot of flour to sift for multiple cakes, we particularly liked it for dusting the counter with flour before kneading bread. Thanks to the 1-cup size, we could see how much flour we were using, and it’s compact enough to store in your flour bin. And when it’s time for a cleaning, this model is dishwasher safe.

Material: Stainless steel, plastic | Capacity: 1 cup | Dishwasher Safe: Yes