Vanilla Sugar

Vanilla sugar is delicious stuff. You can use it just like regular sugar (though obviously not in anything you don't want to taste vanilla-y). It's great in baked goods.

It's a great way to use up extra beans from making extract, or to avoid wasting Grade A beans that you bought for baking and then forgot about (please tell me I'm not the only one who does that occasionally).

And it's super, super-easy.

Supplies

Airtight Container

You can use just about anything, from an old Tupperware to a clean jar to a sturdy zip-top bag. Something with a wipe opening will make it easier to measure the sugar out directly from the container.

Vanilla Beans

There's no exact recipe, but I use about five beans per two cups of sugar. You can adjust up or down depending on what you have available.

Sugar

Any type of sugar works. I like organic cane sugar myself, but you can use whatever you prefer. (I'm thinking about it now and I suspect that vanilla brown sugar would be AMAZING. Note to self: Try that later.)

Tools

• Measuring cup, if you want (I eyeballed it)
• Clean cutting board
• Sharp knife

Process

OKAY.

Cut your beans in half so that they're shorter and a bit easier to work with, but don't cut them too short or it will be a pain to fish them out of the sugar later on (as long as the beans aren't in tiny pieces, it's easy to keep from getting any chunks of bean in whatever you're using the sugar in).

Now slice shallowly down the length of each bean -- ideally you want to slice it open, but not in half (it's not a big deal if you slice it in half, though).

Put about half of your sugar into your container. Add the beans, and then dump the rest of the sugar on top. Secure the lid of your container and give it a vigorous shaking.

That's it! You can use the sugar right away if you want but it will taste best if you let it sit for a while, say about two weeks, shaking periodically. You can sift the beans out if you want; personally, I like to just replace the sugar I take out and use the same beans to infuse sugar for about six months, at which point they're usually spent and it's time to make a new batch.