I think I may have posted this before, but when I spoke to the orchardist at our farmers market, she told me she packs a quart jar with peach slices (mostly for the measurement), adds 1/4 c sugar and 1 tsp fruit fresh, shakes it around, pours it into a ziplock bag and freezes on a cookie sheet, so it stays nice and flat. She claims when slightly thawed, they are spectacular snacks. Her family gobbles them up. (This she told to me after I had canned six quarts and made my kitchen into a big ole sticky mess!!) Haven't tried it, but will next year. This year, I have my six quarts and that's plenty for me, as DH doesn't eat peaches. Cathy, in DC, and waiting waiting waiting for the tomatoes in the garden to turn red

December 2020.... Just made Snowballs (cookies rolled in powdered sugar) and the powdered sugar was the culprit. Tasted terrible. I've made these every year for years and years and this is the first batch I've made that came out bad. First I thought I was tasting soap from my hands... odd but I couldn't figure out any explanation. Rerinsed my hands and cookies still tasted like soap or perfume. I smelled the sugar (brand new bag, not expired) and the sugar in the bag smelled like perfume. I threw it out. Very disappointing. It was Walmart brand, in a plastic bag (no box). I will never buy that again. And I will also be careful about not storing it by anything with a scent. I don't know that I did, but it was downstairs in a bar that once had a scented dehumidifier in it, so that could have been the problem. But I store a lot of food in there (flour, nuts) and have never had that problem before. Glad I found this thread. Makes me feel like I'm not crazy. (Kids thought the cookies were good, at least.) Hmmm... now that I think about it, I've always bought confectioner's sugar in a bag (not a box). So I'm just going to not store it in that downstairs bar anymore (might be picking up a smell there) and I won't buy Walmart brand again (that might not have been it, but better safe than sorry).

Back in the day, when I could afford to waste long hours creating R.I. Lace, I would order British icing sugar (confectioner's sugar), because it claimed to be very fine, pure sugar. Later, I learned that it contained tricalcium phosphate, which turned out to be an anti-caking agent. I haven't tried King Arthur's glazing sugar. All I know about it is that it contains Maltrodextrin, which is derived from cornstarch. It may, or may not play a pivotal role in the clumping dept. Maybe our Dcarch, the science man, will enlighten us. However, I believe that airtight packaging may be the reason why their product stays lump-free. Sol

#1. CREAMING: beating sold fat and crystalline sugar. #2. The volume of the butter increases from aerating (whipping air into it) so it becomes fluffy. If you touch it, it feels like facial cold cream and it's a pale yellow color. The texture becomes soft but the butter still retains its shape. It isn't beaten at such a fast speed it melts or gets greasy. NO high-speed mixing necessary for creaming. High-speed mixing will cause too much friction which can melt the fat and result in a baked good that is too dense. [Grainlady note: After decades of judging foods at local and State Fairs, the stand mixer is one of the most over-used and abused tools in the kitchen. Try creaming by hand once and you'll see what creamed fat is really all about.] #3. Characteristics of softened butter, which is often the first mistake made when creaming fat/sugar. -Softened butter has an internal temperature you can measure with an Instant Read Thermometer between 68-70 degrees F, but a slightly cooler temperature works best for creaming. Butter warms quickly when beaten or handled (not to mention the influence of the ambient temperature in a hot kitchen), so starting with butter at a slightly cooler temperature will help prevent it from getting too soft, and try to work when your kitchen temperature is in the 60's. --Don't use butter that sat out on the countertop for hours/days because it will be too soft. --Butter will soften at room temperature (room temperature is considered to be 70-degrees F) in about 30-45 minutes. Don't use the microwave for softening butter because it will have places that are too soft. --Perfectly softened butter should give gently to pressure when you press it with your finger. You should be able to leave a fingerprint and slight indentation on the stick, but the butter shouldn't be soft in appearance, nor is it so soft you could press completely through the butter with your finger. It should still remain semi-hard. --Butter that is too cold won't blend with sugar. If it's too warm, it won't hold air. #4. Use a paddle attachment of a stand mixer or the beaters of a handheld mixer. Soften the butter on LOW speed for about 1-minute. The fat will fan out in the bowl with ridges. If using both butter and shortening in a recipe, soften the shortening first and then add the butter. If the butter is cold (straight out of the refrigerator) it will still work, but will take longer. --If you choose to cream fat/sugar by hand, use a wooden spoon. Flatten the butter against the sides of the bowl. Once it becomes creamy, lift the butter and fold it over on itself to incorporate air. Once the butter is light and fluffy, gradually add the sugar. After 3-5 minutes of vigorous beating, the butter should be pale and almost twice the original volume. #5. Back to the mixer method... Add the crystalline sugar in a steady stream at the side of the bowl. This will allow for better incorporation than adding it all at once, or adding both fat and sugar together, and trying to cream them. After the sugar has been added, increase the speed to medium and beat for 5-minutes. Throughout the creaming process, stop the mixer often and scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl. #6. Beat until the mixture is light in color and fluffy. #7. Solid fats (butter, shortening, lard) are called "plastic fats" because of their ability to change shape when pressure is applied. This is determined by the temperature of the fat. Hydrogenated fats are very well suited for creaming. Butter doesn't cream quite as well because it is less malleable at room temperature, but adds flavor and richness you can't get with shortening or lard. Lard also has a larger fat crystal than shortening or butter, making it a good choice for making pastry. Butter is made of shorter chained fatty acids while shortening is made of longer chained fatty acids, and that is the difference in structure. #8. Avoid overbeating (with mixer or by hand). If the mixture becomes grainy and looks curdled, it has been over-beaten. You can go ahead and use it, but the mixture won't have the same leavening power that properly creamed butter/sugar would. #9. To keep creamed butter from deflating when eggs are added, lightly beat the egg/s before adding to the mixture. Blend ONLY until the mixture is blended together. Fold in the dry ingredients carefully. May I suggest a Danish Dough Whisk when it comes to blending batters, rather than a stand or electric mixer. Once you add the dry ingredients and you use an electric mixer, it's too easy to over-mix the batter and develop too much gluten, resulting in tough baked goods. -Grainlady