Vanilla Sugar, My Newest Obsession

Recently I got a hold of some vanilla beans.  I was excited and wondered what I should do with them.  I thought I would start by making vanilla sugar.  It's not a complicated process but I never bothered, and I feel like I have seriously been missing out!

My husband thinks I'm obsessed with it.  It might be because every time I go into my kitchen I've been giving my vanilla sugar jar a shake and opening it up for a nice whiff of vanilla...and then I rave to him over and over about how I love my vanilla sugar.  Well, that just might be why but I can't be sure.  But I really do love the vanilla scent and infusing that flavor into my morning coffee.  I haven't used it in my baked goods yet but I think it would be particularly awesome for creme brulee.  That's good reason to pull out that torch that I haven't touched in years and just may be my next to-do...well, maybe after the holidays.

Procedure:
1. Take a vanilla bean and lay it flat on a cutting board.  Using a sharp knife, run it along the center of the bean to split it in half vertically.  Use the back of the knife to scrape out all the seeds.

2. Add the scraping of 1 bean to 2 cups of granulated white sugar and stir to break up the seeds.
3. Store in an airtight container for 2 weeks before use (Though, I couldn't wait and used it the next day)
5. Periodically give the sugar a shake.  It will become off-white with flecks of vanilla bean distributed throughout.
* The sugar can be stored indefinitely and you can add more sugar or vanilla beans as necessary to make more.
* The longer you leave the vanilla bean in the sugar, the stronger the flavor. 

Suggestions for Use:

Use it in anything you want to infuse a vanilla flavor to

In recipes that call for both vanilla and sugar

In coffee, tea, cocktails (rim your glass with it!)

On fruit, oatmeal, cereal

Sprinkled on buttered toast
Topping for muffins, cookies, creme brulee

I plan on sharing some vanilla love and packaged the sugar in pint sized jars for Christmas gifts.  They would make great hostess gifts too, maybe tied with a little ribbon and note.  At least I know I would want to receive one!