This is one of those non-recipes: Once you’ve used a vanilla bean for pudding or another use, take the bean pod and bury it in a jar of sugar, which will thus become suffused with vanilla flavor. Stir the sugar in your coffee, sprinkle it on fruit, use it in baking… the possibilities are limitless.
I decided to categorize this as “vegetarian” instead of “vegan” because you should only do this with spent pods (otherwise, you’re wasting valuable vanilla seeds) and I’m guessing that, four times out of five, you will be immersing the vanilla bean in milk or cream before you use it in the sugar. I also chose to keep the vanilla sugar in the refrigerator, just to keep any residual milk on the vanilla bean from spoiling.
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[...] vanilla bean lengthwise and scrape the seeds into the dulce de leche (reserve the vanilla bean pod for another use). Whisk the dulce de leche until it is smooth and [...]