Best Flour Duster

I've used this flour duster for about 5 years and have found nothing else that can compete. It allows for remarkably light and even dusting of dough or a work surface. You simply squeeze the wire handle which expands the spring bulb so that the bulb wires have space between them. Then you stick it in a bag of flour, stop squeezing and the spring bulb closes around a golf ball sized wad of flour. Then you shake it over a work surface squeezing gently (I tap it over my free hand a la David Byrne's "Once in a Lifetime") and voila; a very even dusting is achieved. --Robert Narracci Best Flour Duster $15 Don't forget to comment over at Cool Tools. And remember to submit a tool!

• [Ipo]

  It never occurred to me that one could use it for flour.
  This kind of tool offers the best method of “sprinkling powdered sugar on unfrosted baked goods” evenly there is.
  In fact, how else do you do it?

  It sees frequent use in our house.
  Specialized tools rule. They do the one thing they are made for far better than multi-tools, and can often be abused to do things satisfactorily that they were not designed for.
  Tools that one doesn’t ever use are the ones taking up space.
  But I love them too.

  • [Remez]

    I sprinkle powdered sugar on unfrosted baked goods using a sifter. Works perfectly.

• [Anonymous]

  Letting the cakes come out,
  Letting the flour sift on down,
  Letting the cakes not stick,
  Flour covering the pan.

• [Anonymous]

  Ugh, specialized tools are the bane of a neat, organized kitchen. I will stick with a slotted spoon … or my fingers, thank you.

• [Anonymous]

  Mostly fair comments but take this into consideration….if you’re kneading yeasty dough and your hands are covered with it, this is a good way to evenly amend the dough with small, strategic amounts of flour and not skunk the bag by sticking your hand into it (or wasting flour by pouring out a reserve pile for the same purpose). Shakers and sieves are fine, but I just don’t want another vessel sized instrument taking up space on my racks when I can just hang this handy little guy on a hook.

  And to the critics of single purpose tools, You gotta problem??? take it up with my friend, Mr.Henry F. Phillips.

  Cheers and happy baking!

  Rob Narracci

• [Anonymous]

  I’ve found an excellent tool for dusting a surface with flour, too.

  It’s called “My hand.”

  I make wheat tortillas 3-5x a week so I think I know a little bit about the subject.

• [Anonymous]

  (I tap it over my free hand a la David Byrne’s “Once in a Lifetime”)”

  I read that and I immediately pictured the motion and knew exactly what was being described. If it wasn’t so obscure to most people, it would have been brilliant writing.

• [mccrum]

  I’m a fan of the shakers they put out for use at pizza parlors for grated cheese. They’re about a buck from kitchen supply stores and can work with the same music. :)

• [Stefan Jones]

  I could have used one of these the other day, dusting greased muffin tins.

  I’ll look into mccrum’s suggestion. $15 is an awful lot of money for something that basic.

• [Anonymous]

  “Tea tongs” are just as good, and cheaper :-)

  http://www.amazon.com/Norpro-Grip-EZ-Tea-Infuser-Cup/dp/B000SSU8Z6/ref=sr_1_15?ie=UTF8&qid=1301434724&sr=8-15

• [Courtney]

  Alton Brown thumbs his nose at your (albeit stylish) unitasker.

  • [Jimmy Joe]

    I was going to a comment asking of similar flavor asking what else it can do. My wire sieve cost about $3 and has other uses.

• [emmdeeaych]

  I’ve found that my Thumb and Forefingerâ„¢ brand tools work very well for me, with a wide variety of additional uses around the kitchen. I do understand that not everyone has the full set.

• [Pirate Jenny]

  My mother and grandmother have sworn by this thing for years. No, they’re not exactly minimalists in the kitchen, but it is a nifty tool; pretty sure neither of them spent $15 on it, though. Mom gave me one, so mine was free :)

  It’s also nice for evenly sprinkling powdered sugar on unfrosted baked goods.

• [Anonymous]

  Having worked in a bakery on the bread shaping bench, I have to say that there is a certain tactile joy and pride in doing this by hand. We all had baskets of bench flour near our dominant hands, and we used it constantly. The trick with flouring the work surface is to get an even coat, using the bare minimum possible. Besides affecting the hydration levels of the dough, using too much will create a gummy film on the work surface. This will cause your dough to stick, and you’ll have to take more time scraping the film off with your bench knife. The trick is to take a bit of flour and palm it with your pinky and ring-finger. With your thumb, middle and index fingers curled inwards but loose, you flick the palmed flour out with a snap of the wrist in several quick throws. You want a low, flat trajectory across the surface. This will send a wave of flour rolling across the bench, leaving an even dusting in its wake. You’ll probably be surprised at how far you can throw something like flour. I always found it fun and satisfying as well — getting the perfect dusting in a few easy flicks. Give it a try the next time you’re working with dough. Now this is what we did for shaping boules, baguettes, and batards as well as braided challah. For ciabatta (a very wet dough that was more cut to shape than manipulated by hand) we used a heavy layer of bench flour shaken out in big handfuls between loose fingers; something that this tool would probably do a fine job approximating.

• [Anonymous]

  It is brilliant writing. That David Byrne comment is so full of win. You just made my… month!

• [halcyongoddess]

  That’s what that thing’s for? Huh. I never knew.

• [Jamie Sue]

  Boingboing should have a report on innovate ways to use cooking utensils.

• [Sharktopus]

  My Mom had one of these when I was a kid (mid 70s) and she though it was an egg beater…

• [Anonymous]

  Alton Brown would approve if it also sprinkles other things, like powdered sugar. Perhaps it does.

• [Courtney]

  @ Anon # 19 – if you’ve never watched ‘Good Eats’, Alton Brown is fond of often saying “The only unitasker in your kitchen should be a fire extinguisher.”

• [Jamie Sue]

  Boingboing should have a report on innovate ways to use cooking utensils.

• [BB]

  Looks like it has a giant paper clip attached to it. I’m with the others, just use your hands and spread. Less clean-up, more space in the cabinets, and more change in the pocket.

  • [BB]

    I meant safety pin. Not that it really matters.

• [lakelady]

  am I the only one who looked at the photo and thought “how the heck do you clean the floor with that thing”

  • [BB]

    No, but thanks for the laugh, that struck me as very funny.

• [Berk]

  I’ll take 10 of these thanks.

  Seriously though, one standard cheaparse flour dredger will do the job fine, if you *really* need something done more finely than with your hand, and your sieve(s) are otherwise engaged.

  No point at all having anything else, it’s a massive waste of money, You could get 2 decent sieves (course and fine) a sifter, and a dredger for the same money. And they’d legitimately take up space, each having multiple, and distinct uses.