Vanilla Sugar Uses: Toppings, Baking, Drinks and How to Make It

Vanilla sugar sweetens a little and flavors a lot. And since it’s dry, it goes places liquid vanilla extract can’t: onto the outside of a cookie, over a pie crust, around the rim of a glass. It’s what coats Dr. Oetker’s classic Vanillekipferl, and it’s easy to make yourself: America’s Test Kitchen uses 2 vanilla beans for 1 cup of sugar.

Check the label first. Dr. Oetker’s Bourbon vanilla sugar lists sugar, ground extracted vanilla pods and Bourbon vanilla extract;¹ its vanillin sugar lists sugar and vanillin flavoring;² and a Dr. Oetker vanilla sugar sold by a US grocer lists sugar and artificial flavor.³ Under US rules, “vanilla sugar” is an allowed name for vanilla powder made by blending ground vanilla beans or vanilla oleoresin with sugar.⁴ Any of them works for the uses below. Only the bean kind gives you dark specks.

At a glance

As a coating and topping

This is where extract can’t compete. America’s Test Kitchen suggests rolling molasses or peanut butter cookie dough balls in vanilla sugar, and sprinkling it over pound cake batter or a pie crust before baking.⁶ The Wegmans listing for Dr. Oetker’s vanilla sugar also suggests sprinkling it on baked goods for flavor and decoration.³ Extract is a liquid and would just wet whatever sugar it touched.

Vanillekipferl. Dr. Oetker’s recipe for classic Vanillekipferl, small crescent cookies made with ground hazelnuts and butter, mixes powdered sugar with a packet of Bourbon vanilla sugar and turns the cookies in it while they’re still warm, then leaves them to cool. The same recipe also puts two packets of vanillin sugar into the dough itself.⁵

Doughnuts, French toast, waffles. America’s Test Kitchen uses its vanilla sugar to coat sufganiyot.⁶ You can also use it the way you’d use cinnamon sugar, over French toast, waffles or buttered toast.

In baking, in place of some sugar and vanilla

A packet of vanilla sugar is mostly a flavoring. Dr. Oetker sells its Bourbon vanilla sugar in 8 g pouches and says one pouch is meant for a recipe using 500 g of flour, or for 500 ml of dessert or drink.⁷ USDA’s FoodData Central gives 4.2 g for a teaspoon of granulated sugar,⁸ so by our math an 8 g packet is just under 2 teaspoons of sugar. The sweetness in a cake still comes from the recipe’s own sugar.

In an American recipe that calls for both sugar and vanilla extract, you can swap some or all of the sugar for vanilla sugar, gram for gram, since it’s sugar for sugar. Whether that also replaces the extract depends on how strong your vanilla sugar is. Swap the sugar, taste the batter or dough, and add extract only if the vanilla is faint. For the reverse swap, see vanilla sugar substitutes.

The alcohol question. US vanilla extract has to contain at least 35% alcohol by volume.⁹ Not all of it bakes off. Idaho State University’s tabulation of USDA retention figures puts the alcohol left in a dish baked for 25 minutes without stirring at about 45%.¹⁰ Vanilla sugar made at home from beans and sugar has no alcohol at all. Some commercial versions list vanilla extract among their ingredients,¹ so check the label if that matters to you.

In whipped cream, custards and ice cream

Dr. Oetker suggests its Bourbon vanilla sugar for whipped cream, fine pastries and cream fillings,¹ at one packet per 500 ml of dessert.⁷ Stir it into cream before whipping, or into a custard or ice cream base in place of part of the sugar.

In coffee, tea and on fruit

America’s Test Kitchen suggests vanilla sugar for sweetening coffee or tea, tossing with fruit salad, and coating pears before roasting.⁶ It’s also nice in place of plain sugar on oatmeal, yogurt or berries. Bean-based sugar leaves a few dark specks in a cup; vanillin sugar doesn’t.

In syrups and cocktails

America’s Test Kitchen uses vanilla sugar to garnish the rim of a cocktail glass.⁶

For a vanilla simple syrup, dissolve vanilla sugar in an equal volume of hot water, the usual simple syrup proportion. Treat that as a starting point, not a tested recipe. Use it anywhere a drink calls for simple syrup, from iced coffee to a whiskey sour or daiquiri. Want a clear syrup from bean-based sugar? Strain out the specks through a coffee filter.

Making it at home

America’s Test Kitchen’s recipe, by Jessica Rudolph, uses 2 vanilla beans for 1 cup of sugar. Split the beans and scrape out the seeds, rub the seeds into 2 tablespoons of the sugar with your fingers until combined, then whisk in the rest. Put the sugar and the emptied pods in an airtight container and leave it at least 2 days for the flavors to meld. ATK says it keeps for up to 1 month.⁶

That’s a stronger ratio than the oft-repeated claim that two beans will flavor several cups. A weaker ratio is fine, but it isn’t a tested recipe. Burying used, dried vanilla pods from other recipes in a jar of sugar is a popular way to stretch them, though we found no measurement of how much flavor they still give.

A note on sugar

Vanilla sugar is sugar, and it counts as added sugar. FDA’s Daily Value for added sugars is 50 grams a day on a 2,000-calorie diet.¹¹ See too much sugar if a dish has gone too sweet.

Not yet measured

• A conversion between a packet of vanilla sugar and a teaspoon of vanilla extract.
• How long homemade vanilla sugar keeps its aroma beyond ATK’s one-month storage guidance.
• How much flavor spent vanilla pods still give to sugar.

Related

• Vanilla sugar
• Vanilla sugar substitutes
• Vanilla
• Vanilla extract substitutes
• Vanilla powder vs. vanilla extract
• Too much vanilla
• Too much sugar