Homemade Vanilla Sugar

Today, I’m excited to share with you how to make homemade vanilla sugar—a quick and simple yet incredibly special ingredient that will elevate your baking. This powdered vanilla sugar is made using exhausted vanilla pods, meaning nothing goes to waste! Its fine texture and rich aroma make it perfect for incorporating into crusts, doughs, sponges, almond cream, fruit pies, simple syrups, and even cocktails and many hot beverages. Unlike liquid vanilla extract, this sugar blends seamlessly into dry mixtures, ensuring an even distribution of flavor. Let’s get started—you’ll wonder how you ever baked without it!

Homemade Vanilla Sugar

Course: How To
Cuisine: French
Keyword: bourbon, tahiti, vanilla
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 0 minutes
0 minutes
Servings: 370 grams
Calories: 38kcal
Cost: $1
A quick and simple yet incredibly special ingredient 
Print Recipe

Equipment

  • 1 High powered blender
  • 1 Baking tray
  • 1 Offset spatula
  • 1 chinois or fine sieve
  • 1 Glass jar

Ingredients

  • 80 g Dried vanilla pods
  • 250 g Powdered sugar

Instructions

Vanilla Sugar Using Fat Beans

  • Split a couple of fragrant vanilla beans in half, scrape out the seeds, and stir them—along with the empty pods—into a bowl of white or raw sugar. The natural oils from the beans will infuse the sugar with their rich, floral sweetness over time. Transfer vanilla sugar into a glass jar. In a few weeks, you’ll have deeply aromatic vanilla sugar perfect for sprinkling over desserts, stirring into coffee, or baking into cookies and cakes.
    vanilla-bunches

Vanilla Sugar Using Dried Pods

  • Pods—dried, or still fresh—are great for poaching fruit. Ultimately, don’t throw away used vanilla pods! Rinse them under running water to remove any residue, then let them dry completely—either on a baking sheet at room temperature or in the just-turned-off oven (the residual heat speeds things up). Keep dried vanilla pods in a sealed jar.
  • Before you start, spread the saved vanilla pods onto a baking tray (your old vanilla beans can be added too). Toast them for 1 hour or so in a 295ºF/145ºC fan oven.
    dried vanilla pods
  • Break the dried vanilla pods into 1-inch/2.5cm piece. Add to blender with half your powdered sugar.
  • Pulse until pods begin breaking down. Stop blender and scrape down sides, add remaining sugar. Continue mixing until it turns to a fine grey powder.
  • Pass vanilla sugar powder through a chinois.

Storage

  • Store vanilla sugar in a sealed jar for up to 3 years.

Nutrition

Serving: 10g | Calories: 38kcal

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