The Mysterious ZillionX Sugar

 I found a frosting recipe that calls for 10XXXX powdered sugar. Where can I purchase it? I can't seem to find it on the Internet.

 Like coffee beans, sugar can be ground more coarsely or finely as it is transformed into confectioner's, or powdered, or icing sugar. With sugar, however, coarse is a very relative term; all confectioner's sugar is ground very fine.

Confectioner's sugar can range from 14X (the finest) to 4X or 3X (the coarsest). The number refers to a measure of the fineness of the screen through which the ground sugar can be sifted.

Professional bakers may have access to a variety of textures — they most commonly use 6X. Those of us who are limited to the shelves of a grocery store generally have only 10X available, at least in this country. Here and there you can find 4X in the store (Domino Sugar produces a one pound box of 4X, but it is hard to find).

If your recipe asks for 10XXXX confectioner's sugar, it is a misprint. Use whatever confectioner's sugar you can find, and your frosting will turn out fine (unless the recipe contains other, more troublesome, misprints).

Submit your question
to Ochef