Powdered Sugar versus Regular Sugar
I just bought a Vita-Mix Vita Prep commercial blender (basically this thing will turn rocks into powder). One of the first things I did was put some regular sugar into the blender and instantly turned it into fine powdered sugar.
This got me thinking: is there any application where powdered sugar wouldn't be preferred to regular sugar? Commercial powdered sugar has some corn starch in it to prevent clumping, which might not be desirable to add to whatever you are making, but homemade powdered sugar is just pure sugar.
Obviously if you're making any type of drink, powdered sugar wins: it dissolves instantly. But what about cakes and cookies? When you cream the butter and sugar, would the aeration of the batter be effected, aand if so, for better or for worse?
I may ask this question on rec.food.baking, too...
Dylan
Aug 11, 2004 12:47AM
I'm sure there is more to it, but I can't STAND powdered sugar (unless it's dissolved or lost in a mix). Those white donuts taste like TALCUM POWDER to me. But I like the occasional type with the big crunchy sugar on the surface.
Does powdered sugar really dissolve faster? I suppose it should in theory, but you're talking about the diff between 2 secs and 3, right? Can't say as I've ever found "undissolved crystals" to be an issue with regular sugar in my coffee.
If you could find a machine to take powdered sugar and turn it into REGULAR sugar...now you're talking!
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Actually the increased dissolvability of fine sugar is a great thing when you're trying to sweeten something cold like iced tea or lemonade. Granulated sugar just sits on the bottom of the glass.
Link: http://meglioranza.com
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I don't even bother trying to sweeten cold drinks with any kind of sugar. I make simple syrup when making the drinks and use that to sweeten.
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I can't remember from Chemistry if sugar dissolves or sits in suspension, but for those recipes where there would be no dissolving, powdered has a different mouth feel. I've powdered sugar before (where there is no cornstarch) and if you put it straight on your tongue there is no graininess, just sweet.
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Depends what you mean by "graininess". Those white donuts make me choke. I don't mind the taste - it's definitely the texture which turns me off.
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Always fed the white donuts to our dogs, I preferred those sticky coconut ones. They never seemed to mind the powdered sugar.
If you want to see graininess try making your own chocolate from the cocoa bean. What you may think is powdered sugar, upon further review is grainy. I think this is the most extreme case, but it applies to a lesser degree to other situations.
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What you have isn't as much powdered sugar as it is superfine sugar. As SweetTooth said, powdered sugar has a bit of cornstarch in it, enough to change the properties of it so that trying to substitute powdered for regular just doesn't work either way. If you make a frosting out of the blended sugar, I wouldn't be surprised if it still felt a bit on the grainy side. But then, it *is* a Vita-Mix... I could be very well wrong, especially considering how powerful those things are. The surest way to tell if you have powdered or superfine sugar is to weigh one cup of it. If it comes in around seven ounces, it's superfine. Powdered sugar will weigh closer to five ounces.
I have used C&H Bakers' Sugar (it's in between regular and superfine sugar for grain size) and it works very well- I'm sure that while the bakers' sugar doesn't work miracles like their marketing department wants you to believe, it is better in just about every way I can think of. As long as you weigh out the sugar if it is less than seven ounces a cup, it should work quite well.
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I'm away from my scale right now... but the consistency of this sugar from the Vita Mix is probably 95% as fine as powdered sugar... superfine sugar (which I have bought before) is much grainier. The Vita Mix is amazing. I'll try making some icing with it and see what happens (I suspect it will be OK but not quite as smooth as typical icing).
PS- I also used the Vita Mix to grind one of those incredibly hard clumps of Mexican brown sugar. No sweat! Great because Mexican sugar tastes much better than regular brown sugar.
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Oh, do try it with icing. My suspicion is that icing would be even more smooth rather than less with this sugar. Every time I get some out of my blender (see my other post), I think of the icing that my mother always made for my birthday cake. It consisted only of butter and sugar, which she would beat by hand until smooth--sometimes it seemed as long as 45 minutes. She always claimed could only do it by hand and with superfine sugar as regular wouldn't dissolve properly, and a mixer wouldn't allow it to set up. I bet your vita-mix'ed sugar would be a dream in her recipe.
Let us know how it turns out.
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I do not keep any regular white sugar in my house, as I prefer the taste and texture of demerara and other similar sugars that are more course and slightly brown. However, I can't use these for some recipes, as they won't dissolve properly and/or gives a grainy texture to dishes. To deal with this, I put it in the blender and run it until it is a powder. (I even have a tiny blender that I can use for as little as a tablespoon.) It really is more like a powder than superfine sugar(which I have a devil of a time finding, anyway.) It also looks lighter than before it is ground. Cleanup is always easy because all you have to do is rinse the blender container with hot water.
My "powdered" sugar works particularly well when making things like whipped cream, ice cream, lemonade, sweetened iced tea, mint juleps, etc. Also for sweetening fruit for a pie or cobbler. It has worked just fine when making candy, too. I seldom bake cookies or cakes and so couldn't comment on that.
I find that it never gives that awful talc taste or even texture since it doesn't have the cornstarch.
The main problem with using it is when you are precisely following recipes, which I seldom do. In this case, you will need to either measure out the amount of sugar before grinding it or else make yourself a conversion chart, i.e., 1 tablespoon of regular sugar = xx of your powdered sugar. Since I only grind it as needed for some recipes, I go with the former method.
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For most cookies and cakes, there is definitely a difference between using powdered sugar, regular, and superfine. Some of the difference with powdered sugar definitely has to do with cornstarch, so you might find with that certain recipes that call for powdered sugar, you will see textural differences when using your version (I am thinking particualrly of certain butter cookies). I have never liked cookies made with powdered sugar, but I honestly don't know how much of the difference is due to the cornstarch - some, surely, but I don't think all. The large crystals of regular sugar help to aerate butter during creaming, so there is a clear structural difference. I know that I used to have to make two chocolate cookies. The recipe was essentially the same, but one was plain and the other checkerboard. The checkerboard cookies required powdered sugar instead of regular - it made the dough a little more forgiving of all the manipulation. But it also made he cookies pretty gross - unpleasantly crumbly.
I also have a few cake recipes in which I can actually notice a difference between superfine and regular sugar (superfine being better), though generally there is little difference.
I would recommend experimenting with your homegrown powdered sugar.
As for frosting, I really dislike powdered sugar frosting, and always make a traditional buttercream (1 c sugar, 4 egg whites, 3.5 stick butter). So I can't speak to that.
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