DIY: Vanilla Bean Sugar

I finally made something with whole vanilla beans! Scroll down for pictures! I also made vanilla extract, which you can read about here.
Vanilla sugar uses: Coffee, cookies, cupcakes, etc. I have yet to try it on different things, but I imagine you could eat it with anything you want. Maybe on buttered toast? Have you tried regular sugar on buttered toast? Yeah.
Found the idea and recipe here at Cookin' Cowgirl. I'd been thinking of something homemade to make for Christmas gifts, so I got really excited when I found this. I went crazy and spent an hour or so looking for other ideas and ordering vanilla beans. Those things ain't cheap, but they're so awesome. Here's the really simple vanilla bean sugar recipe:

Homemade Vanilla Bean Sugar

12 oz mason jar

1 1/2 cup sugar (or brown sugar, powdered/confectioners sugar)

2 vanilla beans (I used Madagascar)

(1) Pour sugar in a large bowl
(2) Cut 2 vanilla beans length-wise with a sharp knife & gently scrape knife across bean to get vanilla flecks off (See pics below!)
(3) Add vanilla to bowl of sugar & mix (and squish those gobs so the little flecks spread out).
(4) Put the 2vanilla beans in the jar
(5) Pour vanilla sugar over the beans & seal tightly
(6)  Let vanilla sugar sit for 2 weeks before using to get the maximum flavor
(7) Take 1/2 a cup of either the vanilla brown sugar, powdered sugar, sweetener or regular sugar and pour it into one of the small jars (if repackaging). You can transfer a vanilla bean over to the small jar if you prefer. You can decorate the jar with ribbon or twine & attach a gift tag.

 2 whole vanilla beans:

 I ordered 16 off of Amazon:

 The flecks up close (it kinda looks like caviar):

The empty bean pods:

 The sugar before mixing: