[Sca-cooks] 9th c. "Melting Moments" Cookies - help, please

[Terry Decker]

> On Thu, May 3, 2012 at 8:53 AM, Sandra J. Kisner <sjk3 at cornell.edu> wrote:
>>
>> I wouldn't have assumed that the "refined sugar" called for should be
>> modern powdered sugar.
>
> The recipe says to grind sugar and sift it through a fine-mesh sieve.
> I would use either extra-fine/beverage sugar, or take regular
> granulated and whirl it in a blender.  I don't think you need
> powdered.
>
> Brighid ni Chiarain

I wouldn't worry about running it through a blender unless there is a 
tendency for the sugar to lump from the humidity.  Most refined granulated 
sugar will sift through a fine mesh.  At the time the recipe was written, 
most sugar came in conical or rectangular loaves.  To get it to approach the 
fineness of modern granulated sugar, one had to scrape or cut off pieces, 
then grind them to get a fine sugar.  If fineness truly is an issue, I would 
use, as Brighid suggests, either super-fine baker's sugar or castor sugar 
which are roughly half the size of regular granulated.

Bear