Homemade Vanilla Sugar (Sucre Vanillé Fait Maison)
by Art of the Home
Ingredients (yield 2 cups)
- 2 cups of sugar
- 1 vanilla bean
Directions
- Finely chop vanilla bean.
- In a mixing bowl, using a muddler, muddle vanilla bean bits and sugar. We use a muddler but you can also use a mortar or a food processor.
- Pass through a sieve or strainer and store in an airtight glass container.
Art of the Home Suggestions:
- Use your homemade vanilla sugar instead of vanilla extract when making crêpes or pain perdu (French toast).
- Use vanilla sugar for your tea, coffee or in a plain yogurt for a gentle vanilla flavor.
- Type of vanilla beans: we do prefer the vanilla beans from Madagascar (located in “La Réunion”, a French island along the Indian Ocean – used to be called “Île Bourbon”). The Bourbon Madagascar vanilla beans (or simply Madagascar vanilla beans) have a richer flavor than other types of vanilla beans. We use them all summer long to make our Madagascar vanilla ice cream so we buy our Bourbon Madagascar vanilla beans in bulk - it’s a great deal. But you can also get them in lower quantities (Bourbon Madagascar vanilla bean: 7 beans), both options ship for free on Amazon.
- Different sugars: you can use different varieties of sugar – brown sugar or cane sugar for example.
- Bigger jar: if you want to make a bigger jar, double up. You should count 1 vanilla bean per 2 cups of sugar.
Below is a French commercial for a popular store bought vanilla sugar — hope you enjoy the dance of desserts!
I rember first discovering vanilla sugar in packets when visiting in Canada (along with several other grocery items as yet seldom seen in the US but favorites of British-Americans. These have all but disappeared where I currently live in Lancaster County). As I once went to work on a short term project in a packaging company when I was quite young, I confess to being overly interested in regional grocery preferences, particularly when the packages arrive by steady transport from overseas on a regular basis,
Nevertheless, I quickly learned the trick of keeping a stash of Vanilla Sugar ready by putting up separate containers of sugar in which I slipped the whole or cracked or crushed vanilla pods that generally came in tightly capped glass vials. Grateful for your reminder that I ought to do this with my brown sugar or raw sugar as well because one is more often likely to prepare seasonal dishes which call for this if you have the called for sweetener on hand.