Can You Use Powdered Sugar In Sugar Cookie Recipes?

Picture it: You're gearing up to make sugar cookies (perhaps these gluten-free, dairy-free sugar cookies), you open your pantry door, and the only sugar you can find is powdered sugar. Before now, you've only used it to dust the top of that temperamental batch of shortbread you made. But in your desperation, you talk yourself into using it for your cookies instead of granulated sugar. Sugar is sugar is sugar, isn't it? Maybe powdered sugar is finer than you're used to (and it'll almost certainly get everywhere when you fire up the stand mixer), but it'll all come out okay in the end, right?

Unfortunately, powdered sugar is not a good substitute for its granulated counterpart in sugar cookie recipes. Although powdered sugar tastes the same as granulated sugar, texture is just as important — and powdered sugar is simply too fine for the purposes of a cookie. While soft, melt-in-your-mouth sugar cookies are a divine indulgence, they still need to have some chew to them. Using powdered sugar will give your cookies a cakey, fluffy consistency that is nowhere near as satisfying as a more traditional texture.

Another difference between granulated and powdered sugar is the presence of cornstarch. Powdered sugar contains a small amount of cornstarch in order to keep it from clumping and hardening in the bag, which is convenient for those who just want to sprinkle it atop their sponge cake but much less convenient for those who want to use it as a granulated sugar substitute.

Cornstarch isn't a terrible thing to have in your cookies. In fact, it's occasionally used as a tenderizing agent. But the most important element of baking is controlling the exact amount of every single ingredient (this is why bakers use unsalted butter). If there's going to be cornstarch in your cookies, you'd better know exactly how much or you could get an unpleasant surprise when you take them out of the oven. Powdered sugar is a welcome garnish for cakes, cookies, or any other dessert you'd like to give a snowy top; it would be unwise to ask it to do anything more.