Down Mulberry Lane

Breakfast!... homemade powdered sugar!

I made cinnamon roll dough in the bread machine last night.  As I was putting the rolls aside to rise, I began to make the frosting and discovered I had not a DROP of powdered sugar in the house.  Town is 20 minutes away and really not worth the drive, so we were trying to figure out if we could make our own.  And we discovered we could!  

First, I tried white sugar and I was thinking blender, but my daughter suggested the coffee grinder.  So we pulled out the coffee grinder and added about a 1/4 cup of sugar to it and started grinding.  Soon I had some nice fine puffy white sugar.  I ground about 3/4 cup and got a little over a cup of powdered sugar. 

I then tried cane sugar.  (AND got my camera out).  Below are pics of the cane sugar and the ground cane sugar.

My husband was wondering why in the world I was taking pictures of sugar.  I told him I was going to blog about it.  He laughed and said... you're going to blog about making breakfast??  I asked him if he knew how to make powdered sugar and he said... ummmm.... "beat it to death?"   I laughed and said... well, that's why I'm going to blog about it... maybe someone else might run out of powdered sugar and wonder what to do next...!

Here are the two frostings I made with our home ground powdered sugar.  The brown one is from using the cane sugar.  I also had soy cream cheese in that one, which is why I had TWO frostings.  The other frosting is white sugar ground and was nice and fluffy.  I didn't  add quite enough sugar to the soy icing, but I was satisfied for myself and I knew it would melt into the rolls anyways, so I didn't bother making it quite as fluffy.  The color difference is soley from the difference in sugars, though, as I've made the soy icing with white sugar and it looks just the same as the one on the right. 

As for the rest of breakfast, we had our own style of Perkins skillet bowls on the side.  Layer in a bowl, hash brown potatoes (or those flat tater rounds), top with scrambled eggs, sausage of some sort if you prefer (dh uses beef sausage or lamb sausage... I go without), then top with a cheese sauce.  (Melting velveta with a tad of milk in a double boiler works great... however, I used a cashew alfredo sauce for my cheese sauce and found it quite tasty).  Todays doubles... cheese sauces and icings. 

Warmly, ~Melissa

Untitled Comment

6:16 PM, November 2, 2008 .. Posted by anoldfashionedgirl

Just thought I would let you know that I saw this and didn't quite believe it, so I tried it. I pulled out my coffee grinder and used 1/4 cup of cane juice crystals. It works awesome! Thanks so much for sharing! Tell your hubby that I am glad you took pictures and blogged about your breakfast!

GREAT substitution

4:51 PM, November 6, 2008 .. Posted by daughterofgrace

Thanks for stopping by my blog. I've added you to my friends list also....and kudos for the bit about powdered sugar. Where was that info when I needed it last year??
And as for transitioning to vegan.....we are doing it one step at a time......well, a few at least.
We have started with eliminating white sugar, white flour, meat and dairy......so far, so good.
Spices bother me also.....when I follow a recipe, I ALWAYS use only half of a spice to start with....I can add more later....taking away gets a little trickier!!!
Denise, Daugher of Grace

Untitled Comment

8:17 PM, November 8, 2008 .. Posted by Schatzi

Now this looks very interesting...thanks for sharing something so great...I will have to give it a try and maybe also post about it:-)

Have a great weekend.
Connie

Untitled Comment

12:12 PM, November 11, 2008 .. Posted by flmom

Thanks for dropping by my blog - it's nice to meet you!

I have avoided homemade frostings due to the recipes calling for powdered sugar (organic powdered sugar is terribly expensive here and I wouldn't use it often enough to justify the cost). This is a wonderfully simple solution though!

http://a-skip-in-my-step.blogspot.com/