makes about one cup
1 C filtered water
1 C raw (or granulated -- using this will result in a clearer syrup) cane sugar
1 vanilla bean
1. Add water and sugar to a medium sauce pot. Stir until most, if not all, of the sugar is dissolved in the water.
2. Split the vanilla bean down the middle and scrape out the seeds. Add the seeds to the sauce pot along with the bean itself.
3. Place the pot on the stove and bring to a boil over medium-high heat.
4. Once the mixture begins to boil, reduce the heat, and simmer for 15 minutes.
5. After 15 minutes, remove the saucepot from the burner and let sit for an additional 10 minutes.
6. Strain the syrup through a fine sieve. (The sieve I used wasn't particularly fine and there are still vanilla bean specks in my syrup; I'm okay with that.) Discard the vanilla bean.
7. Allow the vanilla syrup to cool completely.
8. Pour the cooled syrup into an airtight container. The refrigerated vanilla simple syrup should last up to one month.