To the best of my knowledge, there is no such thing as pre-sifted PS. The basic idea of sifting is that the contents settle during packing & shipping. Sifting not only gets rid of clumps and/or impurities, but it also adds air to the product, making dry measures of sifted ingredients actually lighter than the same amount that is not sifted. That's why some recipes call for, " 2 cups all purpose flour, sifted" vs. "2 cups sifted all purpose flour"--for the first on, you sift after you measure and for the second you sift before you measure.
With PS, if the bag doesn't say "cane sugar" or "pure cane sugar" under ingredients, it usually means that it's beet sugar. I personally don't like buttercream made with beet sugar, others will disagree. I find it to make for a grainier (and at times, greyer) product.
I buy my PS at Costco because at the moment, other than Domino (which is just too expensive at my local grocery store), it's the only place I find large, 4lb. bags that specify "cane sugar".
I've shopped Aldi's and my best guess is that it's beet sugar.
HTH
Rae
Well I just looked and it only has SUGAR (not cane or pure cane) and cornstarch under igredients. Didn't realize it was beet sugar. The frosting did taste different, but I also used Sweetex for the first time. So I thought it was because of that.
So call me ignorant, but what does the 10-X on the powdered sugar stand for???? My instructor said it meant sifted.
MMMMM Learn something new everyday! Love CC!
Sadly, your instructor is quite wrong. The coarseness of the grind is given by the numbers, such as 10x for the finest, and 6x for standard. "10X" means it was ground "10 times" from it's starting state as granular sugar, "6X" means "6 times".
All PS in the US has some cornstarch in it to prevent clumping and sticking, especially while on the conveyor belt while in the processing plant. It runs at about 3%, so that's to be expected on the ingredients label. Usually, if it is cane sugar, they'll advertise it.
Rae
I use the powdered sugar from Aldi's. My buttercream turns out fine.
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