Vanilla Sugar Tutorial

Sorry for that extended little break I took this week!  Trying to get back in the swing of things, so here's a little tutorial for you guys!  I heard the other day about Vanilla Sugar.  Quite a simple concept, and even simpler to execute.  So I looked up a little information about it and made some for some hostesses at a dinner party I was attending.  I had some left over that I have been putting in my weekend coffee, and it adds an extra bit of goodness!  So, without further ado, the embarrassingly simple tutorial on making your own Vanilla Sugar:

1.  Buy vanilla beans.  You'll pay a ridiculous amount of money for these if you buy them from the local grocery store.  I know, because I procrastinated and that's what I had to do.  So do yourself a favor and order them online.

2.  Cut one vanilla bean in half.  Next, slice the vanilla bean very carefully with a very sharp knife, sort of like bean surgery.  Don't cut all the way through, just halfway so that you can spread it open.  

3.  Next, scrape the little caviar-esque beans from the bean pod with the tip of your knife.  I didn't get a picture of this because I have a good reason I just didn't, ok?!  Oh, and don't throw away these pods!  They will be reunited with their offspring shortly.

4.  Put 2 cups of sugar in a food processor.  Don't have a food processor?  No worries!  I'll address that in a minute.

5.  Add the beans which you just scraped out of the pod into the processor with your sugar.  

6.  Turn that sucker on!  Just let it go for a couple of minutes until it looks all blended.  Alright, if you don't have a food processor, just use your fingers to mash and mix the beans into the sugar.  You want a little bit of the bean oil to mix in with the sugar, so really give it a stirring.  

7.  Once it's all mixed, pour your Vanilla Sugar into a jar, container, plastic bag, whatever you can find to put it in!  That's clean, I mean.  

8.  Take those little bean pods which you sliced open, apologize for your vivisection (don't Google that word, you'll get some gross pictures of dissected frogs and stuff), and nestle them down in the sugar.  The bean pods give it a little extra flavor.  

9.  Enjoy in your favorite coffee or use in baked goods.  Or give it as a gift!  But be sure to tell the receiver what it is, lest they think you gave them sugar with bugs in it.

Notes:  The longer the sugar sits, the better it tastes.  (Two weeks is recommended).  Once the sugar gets low, just toss some more sugar in the container and shake.  The oil from the beans makes the sugar turn into clumps sometimes, so give it a stir every now and then.

Told you it was simple!