Homemade Vanilla Sugar

Don’t let those precious vanilla beans go to waste! Maybe you’ve forgotten about a vial of vanilla beans in the back of your cupboard and now they’re dried out or maybe you still have that pod left after scraping all the vanilla seeds out for another recipe. Instead of throwing these away, we HIGHLY recommend adding them to a jar of sugar! It could be any type of sugar – whatever you prefer. We’ve done this with granulated sugar, cane sugar, coconut sugar, monk fruit and erythritol, and coconut sugar! Shake the jar every so often and continue adding vanilla beans to create an amazing vanilla aromatic flavored sugar. The homemade vanilla bean sugar is not only visually appealing as you get flecks of vanilla seeds throughout, it’s great for topping muffins or scones – any sort of pastry honestly. It smells so amazing and also a great addition in tea or coffee or adding in any baked dessert.

 

  • Easy
  • 5 mins
  • 1 servings
Top shot of granulated white sugar in a small earthtoned bowl. You can see flecks of vanilla seeds throughout the sugar along with dried out vanilla beans. To the left of the earth toned bowl is a dark brown wooden spoon with vanilla sugar. The background is a dark gray.
Side profile view of three mason jars with different types of vanilla bean sugar. The left mason jar is cane sugar, the middle is monk fruit, and the right is regular granulated sugar. Top close up view of a mason jar containing dried chopped up vanilla beans in granulated white sugar, showing flecks of vanilla seeds spread throughout the sugar. The background is a light gray. Close up of vanilla bean sugar and chopped vanilla beans in the sugar. The sugar is set in an earth toned flat bowl and
Ingredients
  • Sugar of choice
  • At least 2 dried out or scraped vanilla beans - whatever you have on hand!
  • Mason jar with a lid
Uses
Directions
  1. Pour the sugar into a mason jar. We recommend leaving about 1/4 of the mason jar empty at the top so you can continue to stick vanilla beans in.
  2. Break apart by hand, use a food processor, or cut with a knife your dried out vanilla beans or scrape out a vanilla bean, keeping the pod (use the seeds for another recipe unless you want to use the seeds in your sugar). With remaining pod or chopped vanilla bean - add to the mason jar.
  3. Close mason jar tightly and shake until contents have been thoroughly mixed.
  4. Continue to check the mason jar every week or so, shaking every time.
  5. You can start using after about a week but the best vanilla sugar has been "cooking" for more than a month - you'll notice a difference in color of your vanilla sugar the more vanilla beans and time that passes.
  6. Feel free to also blend up your used or even new vanilla beans to add to your mother vanilla sugar jar. It should last a very long time.
  7. If you are running low on vanilla sugar - pour additional sugar into the mason jar and begin the process again!
  8. Enjoy!

Recipe and photos taken by Kathryn Herndon at @kniftykat