How to Avoid Disastrous Flour Messes While Baking

Flour is an instrumental element of baking. Whether gluten-free or all-purpose, every professional and recreational baker is well accustomed to the feeling of flour-coated hands. Of course, most of us are also plenty familiar with the frustration of flour-coated counters, floors, and various other kitchen surfaces and (even worse) crevices.

There are a number of ways flour makes its way onto a freshly cleaned area of the kitchen instead of into your mixing bowl, but a few simple tricks can minimize how often you find yourself sweeping it up off of the floor. Of course, sometimes, a flour shower is unavoidable. However, even in those cases, there are clean-up strategies that can minimize the effort and aggravation required.

When it comes to addressing this specific breed of powdery kitchen mess, we can break things down into preventative measures and effectively handling the floured-over reality in front of you. Here's how to keep your flour contained, no matter the baking project.

Preventative

Avoid Spilling Flour While Measuring

I'll just go ahead and admit that I have a very particular system for measuring out flour, and if that makes me a weirdo, so be it. It works. I mean, the journey from the bag to the bowl is among the easiest places to drop an accidental flour bomb. So here we go.

I've mentioned in past articles that I am a big fan of transferring my all-purpose flour from its original packaging to a large, airtight bin upon purchase. Not only does this make it easier to properly aerate and measure flour, but the wide mouth of a plastic food storage bin makes neatly spooning flour out all the easier. In fact, you can hold your measuring cup right over the mouth of the container as you spoon and level, allowing the excess flour to fall right back into the bin — a task I certainly wouldn't dare try over the crinkled opening of a flour bag.

However, there is one cautionary step I take before I even pull the flour from the pantry. First, I lay down a sheet of parchment or wax paper (heck, you could even use a clean paper towel) on the counter so that I can place the bin on top. Measuring flour over this security blanket means that even if I do spill, all I need to do is pick up the edges of the paper and pour the flour back into my measuring bin.

Avoid Spilling Flour While Mixing

Ah yes, you add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in your stand mixer while it's running — per the recipe — and *poof*... a flour cloud. OR, in the process of shake-pouring the last of your flour mixture into the bowl of a running mixer, you accidentally manage to dump a portion down the side of the mixer. (This has happened to me more times than I care to admit.) And don't be fooled, flour messes-while-mixing can occur just as easily using an electric hand mixer as a stand mixer.

Really, the best way to avoid this category of mess is adding the flour carefully and consciously. Sorry, I know that's not the most glamorous or wowing answer, but the truth is that even when a recipe doesn't instruct you to add the flour in increments or to "add dry mixture slowly," it's generally in your best interest to do so. I've found that paying close attention to what I'm doing at this point in the baking process is the most reliable defense I have against spillage.

If you're using a hand mixer, pour in small, manageable amounts of flour at a time as you mix. Sure, it takes a little longer to get it all in there, but you won't be wiping a dusting flour from your cabinets when all is said and done. And if you're using a stand mixer, I typically use a small measuring cup to scoop increments of flour into the bowl as the mixer runs. You can also purchase an extremely handy attachment known as a pouring shield for added security.

Inevitable Clean-Up

There are some baked goods, such as pastry dough and rolled biscuits, that simply require you to coat your counter or tabletop with flour. Sure, you could line the surface with parchment beforehand, but I find that this approach is usually a little more trouble than it's worth considering that you then have to fight the sheets of paper from wrinkling and sliding as you work.

So, once your pie or biscuits are in the oven, you have a counter covered in flour to reckon with; but at this point, it's not just any flour — it's flour that's been moistened with the fat of the dough, along with possible remnants of dough. This is a mess that clings to the surface in a greasy, pasty way that you're not going to just wipe away. And for anyone who's tried spraying the surface down with a cleaning solution before scrubbing knows, adding more liquid only makes the situation stickier. Enter, one of my all-time favorite kitchen tools… the bench scraper.

Ladies and gentleman, this is the perfect occasion to break out your bench scraper. What is that, you ask? Well, it's a straight-edge scraper that's dedicated to pastry-related activities. It's the perfect tool for scraping moistened flour/dough from a countertop or other work surface, then transferring the loose particles to the trash.

Simply use the edge to strip any flour or dough that's clinging to the surface with a gentle but firm pushing motion. Next, load the floury bits onto the flat surface of the bench scraper and transfer to the garbage. You will likely need to make a couple of trips to your trashcan, but when all is said and done, you have a clear counter that needs nothing more than a light wipe.