Cooking | Health | Nutrition | Weight Gain | Weight Loss | Women | Baby | Social Planning | SITEMAP

Cooking Orientation | Recipe Groups | F A Q | Visitor Recipes | Submit Recipes

Powdered Sugar Versus Pisi Cheeni

Both powdered sugar and Pisi Chini are ground granulated sugar. Pisi Chini is used in India, Powdered sugar is used in USA

Pisi Cheeni

In India, powdered sugar is called Pisi Cheeni. The sugar is either ground in a stone Chakki (Flour mill), or pounded in Hamam Dasta (Mortar Pestle). The sugar is ground on as needed basis, and not stored away. The ground sugar easily clumps up by absorbing moisture from the air.

Pisi Cheeni is easily dissolved, there fore it is used in making Besan Laddoo Atta Laddoo and Pinni.

The crystal size of Pisi Cheeni is very small so it is used in baking  Nankhatai or Butter Biscuits where you need very tiny air bubbles.

Powdered Sugar in USA

In United States, powdered sugar is also called confectioner's sugar. In UK and Canada, powdered sugar is called Icing sugar.

The grind of powdered sugar may be graded as 4x, 6x, or 10x referring to the particle size. 4x is coarser than 6x, 6x is coarser than 10x. The default grind for confectioner's sugar is 10x.

Powdered sugar contains up to 3% cornstarch to prevent clumping.  At home you can mix one Cup granulated sugar with one Tablespoon corn-starch and grind in food processor or electric blender to a powder to get comparable results

Castor (Caster) sugar is significantly coarser grind than confectioner's sugar, or a superfine granulated sugar.

Substituting Pisi Cheeni with Confectioner's sugar

The corn starch in confectioner's sugar is the problem. The corn-starch also acts like a thickening agent.

In case of Besan or Atta Laddoo, the sugar is mixed into the mixture before forming ball. The corn starch remains raw and may give you a funny taste though it is only 3%. The raw corn starch also reduces the shelf life.

In case of baking Nankhatai or Sweet biscuits, there does not seem to be any problem. The corn starch gets cooked along with flour or Besan, as the cookies are baked.