Homemade Vanilla Bean Sugar and Salt

A couple weeks ago, I shared my culinary bucket list, the 100 recipes I would love to make. One of the ingredients I've been wanting to work with since I started my blog was vanilla beans! As I began experimenting more with sweet recipes, I noticed what a difference higher quality vanilla can make in the desserts. I figured vanilla beans would take it up another notch!

I decided to start small and create some vanilla sugar and salt. The salt and sugar is simple, but enhances the flavor of any dish it is used in. You can use these anywhere you would use regular salt or sugar, it just adds another layer of flavor. The vanilla sugar would be perfect to add to your morning cup of coffee, or in a dessert recipe. The vanilla salt could be used in sweet dishes (such as salted caramels), or even savory dishes.

We personally created the vanilla salt and sugar to create a rich dark chocolate hot cocoa that we gifted our friends and family with for Christmas. (I'm sharing that recipe soon!)

Here's how we made the vanilla sugar and vanilla salt.

Vanilla Sugar instructions:

• Carefully cut a vanilla bean in half and empty out the paste inside the bean
• Mix the paste of one bean with a cup of sugar
• Cut up the bean and store in the sugar to add additional flavor

Vanilla Salt instructions:

• Carefully cut a vanilla bean in half and empty out the paste inside the bean
• Mix the paste of one bean with 3/4 cup of salt
• Cut up the bean and store in the salt to add additional flavor