German Vanilla Sugar

Vanilla sugar also known as Vanillezucker is popularly used in most of the German baked goods, drinks and desserts. This vanilla sugar is made from sugar, vanilla seeds and vanilla powder from scraped and dried vanilla beans. Such a perfect way to recycle the already used vanilla beans.

I know that most of cake recipes on this blog call for vanilla sugar. On top of that, many have been asking me how to make vanilla sugar, thus why I’ve decided it was high time I show you how to make your own vanilla sugar.

What is vanilla sugar

Vanilla sugar is simply a mixture of sugar and vanilla beans. It is very popularly used in Germany in baked goods, desserts and drinks.

Whether you’re making Apfelkuchen, German crullers or raisin buns you need vanilla sugar. The cheapest store – bought vanilla sugar is loaded with artificial ingredients and the good quality vanilla sugar is often very expensive.

Since I’m a huge fan of vanilla and I refuse to throw away the vanilla beans that I’ve already used to make German egg liqueur for instance. I always keep all the scraped vanilla beans, allow them completely dry and use them to make homemade vanilla sugar.

For this recipe, I used regular sugar, vanilla seeds from two vanilla beans and ten scraped and dried vanilla beans that I had ground in the coffee grinder.

Why make homemade vanilla sugar

The homemade vanilla sugar it’s not only cost efficient, easy and quick to make, but it also smells and tastes heavenly, way better than store – bought vanilla sugar. On top of that, it makes a perfect birthday, Christmas or Mother’s day gift. My mother-in-law for instance is always happy when she receives homemade vanilla sugar from us, since she also loves to bake.

I guarantee you will never buy store-bought vanilla sugar again once you make your own!! And especially now during holiday season, it’s the most important ingredient that you need in your kitchen. Just add 1 to 2 teaspoons vanilla sugar in your baked goodies.

What you’ll need to make Vanillezucker

• 500 g (1.1 lbs/ 2 ½ cups) sugar
• 2 vanilla beans
• scraped and dried vanilla beans (I’ve used 10 vanilla beans)

– You can use both white and brown sugar to make vanilla sugar.

How to make homemade vanilla sugar: recipe with step by step instructions

Begin by cutting dried vanilla beans into small pieces.  Next, put the vanilla bean pieces in a coffee grinder or similar and grind into a fine powder.

• You could also use a blender or food processor to make vanilla powder if you don’t have a coffee grinder. Just make sure to sieve the powder first before adding it to sugar, to remove remaining small pieces of vanilla pods.

Add the vanilla powder to the bowl with sugar and mix until thoroughly combined.

Now split the two “fresh” vanilla beans lengthwise and scrape out the vanilla seeds. Add the scraped out seeds to sugar – vanilla powder mixture and mix very well.

Since I’ve used coarse-grained sugar, I had put the vanilla-sugar mixture in the blender for a few seconds to crush the sugar crystals. But this step is not necessary, especially if you are using fine sugar, otherwise your vanilla sugar will turn into powdered vanilla sugar.

Transfer the vanilla sugar to into airtight containers and store in a cool dry place.

• It’s better to put vanilla sugar that you use on daily basis in a small container. Because the vanilla sugar losses heavenly it’s aroma when you constantly opens it. So the other containers stay closed and you just refill the small container once it’s empty.

Did you make this vanilla sugar recipe? I’d love to hear from you! Simply write a review and add rating to it.