Home Kitchen Powdered Sugar: How to Make it at Home

Powdered sugar doesn’t have to be store bought.

Did you know this? How many times have you searched your pantry for powdered sugar only to come up empty? This seems to be the constant story of my life because this happened to me yesterday.

I wanted to make a glaze for a brunch-y type recipe (one that I’m hopefully sharing with you quite soon) and when I went for the powdered sugar, my Oxo container I store it in was completely empty.

Vaguely I recalled hearing that you can put sugar and cornstarch into a food processor (or high-powered blender) and whir it until the sugar becomes powdery. So I decided I would give it a go. Worse case scenario: I’d have to run out the store. Go-to case scenario? I never have to buy powdered sugar again.

As you can obviously see I was able to stay in my comfy clothes because, simply like magic, it worked.

The recipe I was making didn’t call for a ton of powdered sugar so I only measured a cup of sugar. I use pure cane sugar, so that’s why it’s golden in color. Either types of sugar, pure cane or granulated, will of course work.

Add the sugar and cornstarch to a high speed blender.

Using my Vitamix blender made it unfussy. This is not a plug, I honestly like to use it because a) A regular here it.. and b) I wanted to avoid pulling out my food processor. Its high speed makes it short and especially simple.

When making kitchen-made powdered sugar, set out 1 tablespoon cornstarch for every 1 cup sugar.

Once my lid was on, I started up my high-powered blender and slowly increased the speed until… poof! It started turning white. You guys, I had no idea that it would work this fast. I know, I know but truly! I had to stop midway to snap a picture.

In seconds (truly) I had made from-scratch powdered sugar.

Then I poured it into my go-to air-tight container and stored the powdered sugar until I was ready to use it.

Tips:

• Use a high-speed blender or food processor to ensure you get a fine powder.
• I’ve only tried this with pure cane sugar and can only assume it can be done with granulated white sugar.
• In my experience, 1 cup pure cane sugar equaled a little over a cup of powdered.