Wayne Gisslen

Regular Refined Sugars, or Sucrose

Appears in
Professional Cooking: 10th Edition
Professional Cooking

By Wayne Gisslen

Published 2025

  • About
Refined sugars are classified by the size of grains:
  1. Granulated sugar.

    • Regular granulated, also called fine granulated or table sugar, is the most familiar and the most commonly used.
    • Very fine and ultrafine sugars are finer than regular granulated. They are prized for making cakes and cookies because they make a more uniform batter and can support higher quantities of fat.
    • Sanding sugars are coarser and are used for coating doughnuts, cakes, and other products.

  2. Confectioners’ or powdered sugars. Confectioners’ sugars are ground to a fine powder and mixed with a small amount of starch to prevent caking. They are classified by coarseness or fineness.

    • 10X is the finest sugar. It gives the smoothest texture in icings.
    • 6X is the standard confectioners’ sugar. It is used in icings, toppings, and cream fillings.
    • Coarser types (4X and XX) are used for dusting or for any purposes for which 6X and 10X are too fine.