Home Made Vanilla Sugar

Making "home made vanilla sugar" just as simple as making Vanilla essence I posted earlier. If you are a keen baker  make your own, since it is easy to make and cheaper. What you need is time for sugar to absorb the vanilla flavour in.

I was very lucky that my friend gave me a bunch of vanilla beans (Thanks Tanti), I share some with my other friends and the rest I kept in air tight jar with lots of sugar ( 2kg). It has been in my pantry over 6 months now, the longer it is kept the more fragrant the sugar and even though the vanilla pods starts drying, they are still perfect for cooking. I think this is the best way to keep vanilla pods. We can use the sugar anytime and replace with new sugar, even better if you put the new one in the bottom, and the old one on top.

If you don't have many vanilla pods then you can do Alton Brown's  method  (http://www.foodnetwork.com)  :

Ingredients

1 vanilla bean, whole or scraped
2 cups granulated sugar

Directions
If vanilla bean is whole, slice down side of bean with back of knife and scrape seeds into airtight container with the sugar. Bury bean in sugar and seal tightly with lid. Let sit for 1 to 2 weeks. Use as regular, granulated sugar.

If you don't have the time to wait, this is an instant way of doing it (http://www.mnn.com)

Ingredients

One whole vanilla bean

One cup of sugar

Directions

Split the vanilla bean in half lengthwise and scrape the seeds out with a knife. You will use both the seeds and the outside of the bean.

Put one cup of sugar into a food processor.

Put the seeds and the outside of the bean into the food process.

Pulse several times until the seeds are all incorporated.

Pour the sugar through a sieve (to remove the large pieces) into a container. Put a lid on it and store until needed.

Uses

Crème brulee, of course.

Use in vanilla-flavored cakes or puddings.

Put in coffee.

Sprinkle on fruit.

Use it with cocoa powder to make hot chocolate.