Making Powdered Sugar From Granulated Sugar
I almost never use powdered sugar, partly because we eat sweets so infrequently, and partly because I dislike the way even the national brands of powdered sugar taste now. (Too much corn starch, perhaps?) I haven’t bought powdered sugar for a long time and haven’t really missed it because I only use it for the VERY OCCASIONAL butter cream frosting. But today my husband asked if I would make cinnamon buns, and of course there was no powdered sugar in the house.
I had instructions for what they called “two easy methods” for making powdered sugar out of granulated sugar… one using a food processor and the other using a blender. I decided to try the food processor method first. It was definitely not a success. After an extremely long time of processing, I did eventually manage to get a powdery sugar, but there were still visible tiny sugar crystals, and the consistency was definitely not powdery enough. When I tried using a small amount of this sugar to make the icing, it was a rather gritty failure.
Because of my poor results using the food processor, I almost didn’t try the blender method. I hadn’t added any corn starch to the first batch, so by this time I was thinking that perhaps that was the problem, and maybe something about the corn starch helped the sugar crystals to grind more completely. But since what I don’t like in the commercial powdered sugar is probably the taste of the corn starch, I decided that I would start by grinding just the sugar. Maybe my food processor just isn’t powerful enough, but what a difference that blender made! It was amazing how quickly the blender turned the granulated sugar into real powdered sugar with absolutely no visible sugar crystals. Best of all, the whole process probably took only three or four minutes. I never did add the corn starch, and the blender homemade powdered sugar made up into a wonderful icing for those cinnamon buns.
It’s always nice to find an idea like this that really works.
Written by Shirley | Filed Under Cooking & Baking from Scratch, Doing It Ourselves, Household Hints & General Information, Miscellaneous
... I appreciate your support.
Comments
Comment by kelly:
i had no idea powdered sugar was that easy to make. so glad i started reading your blog. :)
Comment by Grace:
I always learn the coolest things on your site! Thanks for sharing.
Comment by Kelly:
Yay! Thank you for mentioning this, I hate the taste of cornstarch and so have been avoiding all types of frosting. I’ll try this the next time and see how it works for me.
Comment by Brenna Kater, the Ocean Skater:
I used my coffee grinder to make powdered sugar and added a little bit of potato starch (we eat corn-free).
Comment by Sharon:
I tried this in my food processor also with less than great results. And, like you, when I tried it in the blender…WOW..it’s worked great! Love your site! Lots of great information! Keep up the good work! :)
Comment by Thomas Kent:
According to this website:
http://en.allexperts.com/q/Bread-Pastries-746/confectioners-sugar.htm
the funny taste of powdered sugar is not from the corn starch, but from the addition of vegetable oil.
The oil is added to prevent (somewhat) the absorption of moisture from the air or the dessert itself.
b.t.w., the reason why I came to this website (and the other) is that this morning, I ran out of granulated sugar for my coffee thermos and substituted powdered sugar and it gave the coffee a funny taste.
So, when I got home, I Googled powdered sugar+taste!
Comment by Sue:
I thought I was the only “crazy” person that can not stand the taste of commercial powdered sugar! I have even stopped making some of my favorite recipes (strawberry soup, glazes) because they just taste “off”. I tried this method years ago when I ran out, but I think I will go this route from now on. Thanks for validating that I am not the only one that feels this way!
Comment by Z:
I have one of those little blenders that they advertise endlessly on late-night TV (as well as a kitchen full of every cooking appliance you can name) and the little blender does the best job of powdering sugar.
.
The problem with a full-sized food processor is that there is just too much room inside it and you the larger crystals don’t get circulated as much as you’d think. The little blender has a very small container, so all the sugar gets processed in less than 30 seconds. The downside is that if your recipe calls for four cups of powdered sugar, you’re going to have to do it two cups at a time.
.
I can’t recommend the little blender for much else because it only has one speed (bat-out-of-hell) but for a few select applications like this it can’t be beat. (It’s also great at smoothies, becuase frusts don’t have anywhere to hide
.
The King Arthur Flor site recommends against making your own powdered sugar, but powdering sugar grom regular granulated seems to work just fine in any recipe I’ve tried it in.
Please leave a comment!