Sanding sugar

Question

Can I substitute granulated sugar for sanding sugar?  It's supposed to be sprinkled on my cookies on top of an egg wash.

boulangere · Answer

I candied some orange peel the other day, and didn't have any superfine sugar, so used the plain-old-plain-old variety.  It never crossed my (too-focused) mind to reach for the coffee grinder.  Thanks for the reminder ;0)

cookbookchick · Answer

No need to apologize!  We all learn from these posts, especially when someone knowledgeable like boulangere weighs in!

Diana B. · Answer

Sorry, I thought it was the superfine sugar used for sanding candied citrus peel, for example. I apologize for any confusion I introduced into the conversation!

boulangere · Answer

Sanding sugar is also known as AA (double-A) sugar, so classified for the large size of its crystal.  Because of that large size, it's perfect as a decorating sugar on cookies and scones for example.  I also like to use it for the burned crust on top of crème brûlée because it fires up with a deeper crunch than a smaller-crystal sugar.

cookbookchick · Answer

My sanding sugar is indeed coarser than regular granulated sugar.

Sue A. · Answer

Thank you - worked fine.

Sue A. · Answer

Snow storm here - used what I had and it worked - thank you.

Sue A. · Answer

I was under the impression that sanding sugar is coarser than granulated - maybe I'm wrong...

Diana B. · Answer

You can also put your granulated sugar in a coffee or spice grinder and give it a whirl - it will come out much finer and be like the sanding sugar your recipe calls for.

Kukla · Answer

Turbinado or Maple sugar will work very well, but if you don’t have either of them, just use granulated sugar.

Greenstuff · Answer

Yes, you can.  It'll just be slightly different, but perfectly fine.

Sanding sugar

11 Comments

Popular on Food52