I’ve been seeing infused sugars on Pinterest for a while now. We call them “fancy sugars”. I didn’t think it was something I’d be interested in until I had some on a grapefruit piece in New York and I was like, “WHOA… ok, I get it now”. Fancy sugar, it’s a thing.
This isn’t really a tutorial. I just thought it would be fun to share our first sugar infusing experience. It wasn’t a complete sucess or a complete fail and, as always, we learned some stuff to try next time. 🙂
We tried four flavors- lavender, vanilla, rose and orange. We let the orange zest dry overnight before adding it to the sugar. The lavender and vanilla beans were already dry. The rose petals we put in without drying. We let them all sit in a closed jar for one week. After a week, we used a fine mesh strainer to remove the buds/zest and tried out our new flavored sugar!
The results were super interesting and not what I expected. The rose was gross. It smelled gross and it tasted like normal sugar- no flavor. If I tried that again I would use rose tea instead of rose petals. The lavender was good, but very mild. I would add more buds next time (two tablespoons instead of one?) because I like a strong floral flavor. The orange flavor was good. I would probably like it stronger too, or maybe mixed with another flavor. The vanilla was AMAZING. So so so good. If you want to experiment I would highly recommend you try that one. We only used two vanilla beans in our small jar of sugar and the flavor and scent is so strong. I’ve tried it on grapefruit and in my coffee and it’s absolutely delicious!
Vanilla wins!
There are so many uses for these sugars… tea, coffee, fruit, rimming cocktails and we really really really want to use the lavender sugar to make homemade sugared donuts. Next time I want to try mixing two flavors. It’s so easy and fun, why not?! xo. elsie
I’ve been keeping a few vanilla beans in my sugar canister for a few years now (obviously not the same beans for years). I learned about it from Nigella Lawson. I just use it instead of regular sugar now for EVERYTHING, because it’s SO GOOD. I definitely want to try lavender now, though. Maybe even lavender/vanilla.
Did you use normal granulated sugar? It looks super fine in the last two photos. 🙂
if you bake a lot its very nice to make your own vanilla sugar to use in recipes. Just add the emptied vanilla pods that you used to a big pot of sugar. we do it as well and it is vey nice 🙂
I love this! Is it possible to use fresh lavender buds? Vanilla and orange work well because they still have a lot of oils that transfer to the sugar even when semi-dry, but lavender not so much. Please let us know if you try fresh stuff and it’s safe! 🙂 🙂
-megan
Great idea ! I do it with vanilla for the coffee but I’m definitely gonna try these other recipes…
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I recently made mint sugar. So good with strawberries!
I’ve never heard of this before, but I’m definitely gonna try it
http://colormedarling.blogspot.com/
I must do this!
Valentina
http://valentinaduracinsky.blogspot.com/
I bake with lavender infused sugar as often as I can. Cupcakes for the win! I’ve found that I like to leave my lavender in for a few weeks so it’s REALLY stong. I won’t lie, I’ve forgotten about it before and it was still fantastic (after over two months!). I highly recommend lavender lemonade!
Also, another delicious sugar infusion is hibiscus. I’m a Hawaiian native and hibiscus infused sugar makes fanTAStic tea and lemonade.
I have been wanting to do something similar but with salt! Lemon zest and Rosemary infused salt sounds seemingly easy to do!
I will have to try this with vanilla beans!
do you think it would work with raw sugar? i have a big box of it, and i only use a very small amount in my coffee occasionally.
I read about making vanilla sugar not too long ago! A recipe called for vanilla seeds and the author included the tip to make vanilla sugar with the remaining vanilla pods. That way, you get two delicious results (and you’re not being wasteful!)
Love infused sugars.
I have done citrus sugars before. Lemon Sugar can be found on my blog.
I will be trying to vanilla for sure. Thanks for sharing!
I suggest you to try to put some dried carrot slices in it. Because if you put sugar in top of carrot slices just like that, after a couple of hours the sugar is transformed in this kind of juice, but it tastes very nicely (: If you do, let me know how did it go, please ^^
My mum has always kept vanilla pods in the jar of caster sugar, so I do as well, it adds just a little hint of something to cakes 🙂
Vanilla and anything is so good , can’t wait to try it out.
Martha Stewart Living, December/January 1993/1994
http://www.marthastewart.com/272213/scented-sugars?search_key=infused%20sugar
Lavender seems to be a trendy ingredient lately. I had it at chocopologie in my hot cocoa and it legit tasted like soap in my cocoa. 😛 ill skip the lavender infused anything! But I would definitely love to try sugar infused vanilla in my coffee. Yum! Thanks for sharing.
I recently bought some strawberry sugar and peppermint sugar. Both are aaaamazing! But I’ve yet to try making my own. Definitely on my list of things to do!
xo Heather
http://ahopelessnotebook.blogspot.com/
Not sure how exactly this would work in an infused sugar adaption, but as a pastry chef, if I’m adding zest to something I zest the citrus directly into the sugar, and rub it in, then let it sit for a few minutes before adding it to the batter – the sugar absorbs the oils. Not sure if this would make the sugar too wet, if you could dry it out after you add it to the sugar and let it mature, then sift to remove the zest? Just a suggestion.