Vanilla Sugar
Well, this is going to be a rather short blog post but it needed to be mentioned because I have realized many people in my circles have never used vanilla sugar before. It is such an awesome ingredient that you can use to replace any sugar in a recipe, use it as a topping on baked items, sprinkle over french toast, fresh grapefruit and so much more! I love adding it to my tea or coffee and just recently on a whim as I was trying to choke down a bottle of water, I added a 1/2 of a teaspoon to it and wow, it was great!
It is also really easy to make. I have seen recipes where people take their spent vanilla beans after making extract, dry them and then grind them up to put into sugar, and well, to me, yuck. To be honest, I did this once and gave it as gifts without really trying it and while it tasted fine, I am sorry that I gave it out as nobody likes little brown pieces stuck in their teeth! Vanilla pods do not dissolve and I get enough fiber in my diet. Also, it is just not needed! Did you know that if you can smell vanilla, you can taste it? Give it a try, in reverse. Plug up your nose and taste a vanilla bean. What do you taste? I’ll give you the answer, nothing! Just like coffee, we taste vanilla through our noses. Because of this, all we need to do is perfume the sugar and use it to flavor your favorite eats.
While I do not recommend grinding up dried vanilla beans, I will say that scraping and adding the vanilla seeds from the inside of the bean is a completely different thing. Actually, doing so makes an instant vanilla sugar that you can use right away, but there is also an easy way to make a larger batch of vanilla sugar, especially if you are already making vanilla extract.
If you have read my piece on making vanilla extract I recommend clipping off the tips of the beans before putting the rest of the bean in alcohol. I take these tips and toss them into a jar with sugar, cap it and shake to distribute them. I used the tips of 1 ounce of beans and put them into 2 cups of sugar. Then you just let it sit, giving the jar a shake every once in a while. If the sugar clumps together, simply give it a stir to break it up. Within a few days to a week you will already have a lovely scented sugar and can use it, but the longer it sits, the better it gets. Once the sugar is to your liking, simply strain out the vanilla pieces and transfer them to another batch of sugar. Vanilla beans have a lot of bang for the buck as they can be reused until they stop perfuming the sugar. Is this exact? No. If you only have a few tips, just let it sit a bit longer until it is done. Vanilla beans are really powerful and a little goes long way!
So go get some vanilla beans and start your extract and sugar today as you’ll never want to go back to the type in the grocery store.
Recipe
1 vanilla bean or tips from several beans
3 cups sugar
Place vanilla beans into sugar and shake. Place in a cool dark place and shake every few days. If it starts to clump, give it a stir. When the scent/flavor is to your liking it is ready to use. You can keep the bean in the sugar to intensify the flavor or move it to a fresh batch of sugar. When the bean is completely dried out and brittle you can use it in brine’s, re-hydrate it in ongoing vanilla extract or grind it up to use in sachets or other perfume needs.