How to make flavored sugar – (4 Flavors)

Learn how to make flavored sugar at home with this easy guide! Enhance all your favorite baking goodies with four delicious flavors!

Over the years, I’ve discovered different ways to experiment with different flavors. Making flavored sugar has definitely made my baking more interesting and amazingly versatile!

Jump to:

• How do you make flavored sugar?
• How to make lemon & orange sugar in 3 easy steps
• How do you use flavored sugar?
• Recipe

What is flavored sugar?

Flavored sugar is blending a particular flavor, like a spice, an herb, or zest with sugar. Sometimes it involves infusing the flavors for a period of time before using.

There are many different flavor combinations, but in this post, I’m going to show you how to make 4 flavors that I use all the time, as well as a few other flavor options you can try.

How do you make flavored sugar?

There are basically 2 ways to make flavored sugar: mixing and infusing.  King Arthur Flour has a really interesting article and goes into more detail regarding this.

Four different flavors

These are the flavors I use all the time. You can play around with them by adding more or less according to your preference.

Vanilla Sugar

This is my absolute favorite flavor! I always use ground vanilla bean powder! It’s amazing! Just look at those tiny black specks!

If you want, you could scrape the seeds from the inside of a vanilla bean, instead, which would give a more intense flavor, but I think ground vanilla bean powder is much easier and quicker to use! If you use the seeds from a vanilla bean, allow the flavors to infuse for a few days before using.

Cinnamon Sugar

This is so easy to make. All you do is mix the cinnamon in the sugar and then put it in a jar. In the picture above you can see there’s quite a lot of cinnamon. This is the proportion of cinnamon to sugar I like, but feel free to use more or less cinnamon.

Lemon & Orange Sugar

There are 2 ways to make this.

One way is to rub the zest into the sugar with your fingers. You could use a zester or microplane grater to zest the fruit.

The other way is to use a food processor, which is the quickest and easiest method.

No matter which method you use, you'll notice that it's incredibly fragrant!

How to make lemon & orange sugar in 3 easy steps

STEP 1

Peel the fruit and remove the zest. Discard the pith (the white part), otherwise it will leave a bitter aftertaste. Transfer it to a food processor together with the sugar. Pulse it for a few minutes until the zest is finely ground. It should be a light, pale yellow/orange and very moist.

STEP 2

Line a baking pan with parchment paper, making sure there’s overlapping paper on each side of the pan. This will make it easier to use as handles to lift it off the pan.

STEP 3

Evenly spread the mixture on the parchment paper and let it dry at room temperature (about 1 hour). Break up any clumps with your fingers. Lift the parchment paper and pour the citrus sugar  in an airtight container.

I usually use it immediately, otherwise I store it in the refrigerator. For best results, use it within 2 weeks.

Other flavor combination ideas

Here are a few more flavor options you may want to try:

• Add a few drops of your favorite extract.
• Add some unsweetened shredded coconut.
• Add some dried mint or basil.

How do you use flavored sugar?

There are so many ways to enjoy flavored sugar! Here are a few suggestions:

• Use it in lemonade, coffee, tea, hot milk, or iced tea.
• Use it to top Rizogalo.
• Use it in recipes in place of plain sugar, like my Lemon Pomegranate Cake, The Best Cinnamon Rolls from Scratch,  or Ultimate Chocolate Chunk Cookies.
• Take your cocktail to a whole new level by rimming the glass with it!
• Sprinkle over fresh fruit or Greek yogurt.
• It would also make a wonderful sweet gift!

Enjoy!

~Voula

Recipe