You can easily make your own powdered sugar from granulated sugar with only two ingredients and some simple tools. Learning to make your own means you can control what kind of and what quality of sugar you use in your homemade baking recipes. You even make low-carb/no sugar powdered sugar!
Can You Make Powdered Sugar from Regular Sugar?
You certainly can!
If you have any kind of very dry, granulated sugar, you can powder it.
This includes:
- Table Sugar
- Raw Sugar
- Succanat/Rapadura
- Coconut Sugar
- Monk Fruit Sugar/Xylitol
Other DIY Baking Resources
1 Gallon of Milk = 5 Homemade Dairy Products
Make Your Own Powdered Sugar with Granulated Sugar
This is a very easy process if you have a blender. Instructions follow below if you need to powder it by hand.
Make Your Own Powdered Sugar
and a drying agent. Substitute table sugar for any healthier sugar you’d like
to use instead.
Ingredients
- 2 Cups Granulated Sugar
- 2 tsp. Corn or Potato Starch or Arrowroot Powder
Instructions
- Add sugar and starch to high powered blender.
- Affix top and blend on high for 1 minute.
- Stop and shake the blender body to mix up the sugar.
- Blend for another minute, and then stop and shake the container.
- Repeat until all the granulated sugar has powdered.
- Wait for the sugar dust to die down before you remove the powdered sugar.
- Empty from the blender body into an airtight container and store indefinitely.
Notes
Tips For the Best Homemade Powdered Sugar
- If the sugar is overheating and turning sticky, pour everything out of the blender body and put back in only 1 cup of the sugar mixture. Process the sugar in 1 cup increments to keep it cooler.
- If you live in a humid climate a canning jar with it’s ring and lid make a quality air-tight container.
- You can omit the starch altogether if you prefer, just be prepared for the sugar to clump a little bit.
- Be sure to let the sugar cool down all the way before you store it.
MY FAVORITE TIP OF THEM ALL: If you use Succanat or Rapadura, you get a caramel/butterscotch flavored powdered sugar that will make a divine frosting for donuts and cake.
When you make your own you can control what kind of sugar is used – you do NOT have to settle for store bought.
Do You Have to Use a Blender?
If you don’t have one, you might be asking, “How do you make powdered sugar by hand without a blender?”
There are some other tools you can use to make powdered sugar if you don’t have a blender.
You can also use a:
- Food Processor
- Coffee/Herb Grinder
- Mortar and Pestle
Of these, the food processor will work the best to make the finest powder. It won’t be as good as a blender, but it will work.
A coffee or herb grinder will also work pretty well but they’re very small. If you’re trying to make frosting, which typically requires upwards of 6 cups of powdered sugar, your grinder might poop out before you get enough. If you only need a few tablespoons to sprinkle over cookies, this will work fine.
If you have no electricity or no other option, you can use a mortar and pestle to grind granulated sugar into powdered sugar. This is what our foremothers did, after all!
Going through this process manually is a good reminder that special treats requiring special ingredients were reserved for only the most special occasions. Families didn’t indulge in unhealthy desserts every day because making them was so difficult.
Maybe our general health would improve if we had to make ALL our ingredients for homemade desserts by hand! Hmm, something to think about.
I wouldn’t recommend using an immersion blender to try to powder sugar because of how much sugar dust it would kick up. If you kept the sugar in a canning jar and your hand around the blender to block the dust, it might work. Sort of.
Honestly, I’d rather use the mortar and pestle!
What Can I Use if I Don’t Have Powdered Sugar?
Well, you’ve just learned how to make powdered sugar, so you probably won’t have to ask yourself this question. However, there are some recipes in which you could substitute granulated sugar in place of powdered sugar.
If you’re going to switch them out in baked goods, be prepared for the texture of the finished product to be a bit different. Cookies calling for powdered sugar usually result in melt-in-your mouth texture because of how it blends into the recipe. If you change to granulated sugar, the cookie will be crunchier.
If you substitute granulated sugar for the powdered kind, do it by weight instead of volume to improve your results. Powdered sugar weighs 4 oz. per cup whereas granulated sugar weighs 7 oz.
You can make frosting with granulated sugar, but the texture won’t be as fine. Powdered sugar creates a smooth, creamy frosting that isn’t gritty.
However, you can make a granulated sugar glaze for any cake. You can also use granulated sugar to make toppings like chocolate syrup and caramel sauce that can be drizzled over snack cake.
You can also use granulated sugar in other soluble recipes like whipped cream.
Bottom line, both sugars have their place in the homemade kitchen!
<<<—Pin This for Later—>>>
So simple! Trying this today.
I know, right? I’ll never forget the first time I ground my own flour – I couldn’t believe how simple it was. Same thing here and I hope you have fun with it!
Have you ever ground the sugar in a food processor? We don’t have a blender
I haven’t, Paula, since we don’t have a food processor – ha! I’ve always wanted one, though. You could try it, and see what happens. If it works, let me know, and I’ll add that info to the post – with credit back to you, of course.
Sweet! Literally! 😀
Thanks, Sandy – hope it’s helpful!