Vanilla Sugar -the easy way

Vanilla sugar is such a lovely ingredient for cakes, cookies or pancakes. You get the vanilla flavour without using the synthetic vanilla essence and without paying through the nose for vanilla pods.

Vanilla sugar is used widely in Europe and America but I have not found it here in India yet. Luckily, it’s really easy to whiz up you own homemade vanilla sugar out of just two ingredients! It takes about 5 min to make it this way, so there really is no excuse not to.

If you use vanilla pods in your cooking you can also save the empty pods in a jar with caster sugar and the sugar will slowly turn into vanilla sugar. That takes about a month for the empty pod to turn the sugar into vanilla sugar. It’s a really smart way to use the scraps that would otherwise go in the bin. But if you are in a hurry then this is the best method…

Make sure the pods are fresh (and not completely hard) as the sugar will get bitter otherwise.

The vanilla flavour will keep getting stronger in the sugar as time goes on. It will last for a long time but will start to get lumpy in humid weather. Don’t worry, it’s still good to use. Just crush any lumps before use and you are good to go.

Note: The price of vanilla pods fluctuate a lot from Rs. 300 to Rs. 600. So if you are happy to wait a week or two, keep an eye out for the least expensive time to buy.