Say no to imitations and use real
No, it doesn't have the sexy allure of chocolate, the glamour of raspberry or the Southern charm of peach. But we had to have it, even when the price soared to about $8 for a measly 2-ounce bottle of extract last year. We yearned for the wholesome, comforting, slightly exotic flavor.
Vanilla prices are falling now, so it's time to break out the recipes. Lavish the stuff in a homemade cream soda, a double vanilla pound cake with rum-vanilla sauce or a luxuriously rich vanilla custard sauce for berries.
Or make some vanilla extract to steep all summer and fall, and bottle for gifts in December.
For the pound cake, you'll need a vanilla bean, vanilla sugar and vanilla extract. The cream soda, homemade extract and custard sauce are made with whole vanilla beans.
Whole vanilla beans are available in the spice aisle of many supermarkets. The pliable, dark-brown pods usually are packaged in a bottle or glass tube.
Some stores sell vanilla sugar, or you could make your own by burying a vanilla bean in a zipper-lock plastic bag filled with 4 or more cups of sugar. Seal the bag. The bean will flavor the sugar within a week or two.
Don't discard the used vanilla bean. Even beans that have been split and used in cooking may be reused once or twice, until the flavor is gone. Wash and dry the bean if it is coated with other ingredients. Wrap it tightly and store at room temperature.
What we know as vanilla beans are actually dried bean pods. Tiny beans the size of poppy seeds are contained inside the pods. Some recipes call for splitting a bean lengthwise and scraping out the seeds, adding both the seeds and the beans to the mixture to be flavored. Scraping out the seeds releases more of the vanilla flavor.
The vanilla beans are the seed pods of orchids that grow in jungles in the tropics and subtropics. Of the 110 species of vanilla orchids, the most commonly cultivated are vanilla planifolia, indigenous to Mexico, and vanilla tahitensis of Tahiti.
The jointed vines produce small, yellow-white orchids followed by fleshy seed pods 8 to 10 inches long. After the pods are picked, they are treated with water or heat, then sun-dried for weeks or months.
Spanish explorers took vanilla plants from Mexico back to Europe, but vanilla was not successfully grown in tropical European colonies until the 1800s, after a French scientist figured out that the orchids must be pollinated by hand. In Mexico, they are pollinated by tiny hummingbirds and a type of bee that doesn't exist outside the Americas.
With so much vanilla expected to flood the market this year, you may be tempted to stock up. That's not a great idea, said Patricia Rain, owner of the mail-order retailer the Vanilla Co. and author of three books about vanilla.
Vanilla extract loses flavor over time, and vanilla beans can dry out. If vanilla extract is tightly capped and stored in a cool, dry place (but not the refrigerator), it will retain its strength for a long time, Rain said. If it is stored improperly, it can lose strength in as little as six months.
Vanilla beans should be wrapped well and stored at room temperature. Vanilla beans that have dried out and hardened may be reconstituted in warm water, but much of the flavor will be lost.
Many connoisseurs believe the best vanilla is Bourbon vanilla, named for the Bourbon islands, where they were first grown outside Mexico. Like Mexican vanilla, Bourbon vanilla — which contains no bourbon liquor — is made from vanilla planifolia. It is the type of vanilla grown in Madagascar. Most of the vanilla grown in Papua New Guinea is vanilla tahitensis.
Mexico produces very little vanilla anymore. Much of the jungle where the orchids grew has been cleared for oil drilling. Rain, who visits the old vanilla-producing region frequently, cautions tourists about buying Mexican vanilla.
"No matter what the label says, odds are 99 percent that it is fake," Rain said.
Use only real vanilla in the following recipes. This year, you'll be able to afford it.
Homemade Vanilla Extract
5 vanilla beans, sliced open lengthwise
2 cups vodka
Place the beans and alcohol in a lidded jar, cover tightly and store in a cool, dark place, shaking once a week. The longer the beans steep, the stronger the vanilla will be. Steep for several months to a year for the best flavor. Pour into decorative bottles if desired, including a piece of vanilla bean in each one. Cap tightly.
The Perfect Creme Soda
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
2 tablespoon vanilla extract, or to taste
Soda water
In a medium saucepan, combine sugar and water and stir over medium-high heat until sugar is dissolved. Bring to a boil, add vanilla bean and allow to boil for about 3 minutes, or until syrup thickens slightly. Remove from heat and cool. Stir in 2 tablespoons or more vanilla extract.
To make soda, remove vanilla bean from syrup and put 4 tablespoons of the vanilla syrup in a tall glass. Add ice and fill with soda water. Taste, adding syrup if needed.
Note: You can make creme sodas using just extract. Add another tablespoon of extract to the simple syrup after it cools.
(From "Vanilla" by Patricia Rain)
Double Vanilla Pound Cake
1 large vanilla bean, split or cut into pieces
1 cup milk, room temperature4 cups sifted flour1 tbsp. baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt (if using salted butter, delete)
2 cups unsalted butter, at room temperature
2-1/2 cups vanilla sugar
6 jumbo eggs, at room temperature
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
Rum-Vanilla Glaze (recipe follows)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pour milk into a saucepan, add the vanilla bean and bring almost to a boil. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature. Remove vanilla bean and set aside.
Resift the flour with the baking powder and the salt onto a sheet of waxed paper; set aside.
In a large bowl, cream the butter with an electric mixer until light, about 3 minutes. Add the vanilla sugar in two portions, beating thoroughly after each portion is added. Beat in eggs one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl to ensure an even mixture. Blend in vanilla extract.
On low speed, add the sifted dry ingredients alternately with the milk, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Pour batter into a lightly buttered, floured 10-inch tube pan, a large square baking pan or three loaf pans. Bake at 350 degrees on the lowest oven rack for about 1 hour, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake emerges clean and dry.
Cool cake in the pan on a rack for 10 minutes. Prick holes all over the top of the cake with a thin knife or toothpick and slowly spoon glaze over the cake, allowing the syrup to absorb into the cake.
Rum-Vanilla Glaze
1 cup sugar1 cup water
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup rum (optional)
Bring sugar and water to a boil in a small saucepan, stirring to dissolve sugar. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes, or until syrup begins to thicken. Cool slightly before adding extract and rum.
(From "Vanilla" by Patricia Rain)
Vanilla Custard Sauce for Fresh Berries
1/2 vanilla bean
2 cups half-and-half
2 large eggs
1/2 cup sugar
Have ready a bowl of ice and cold water. Split vanilla bean lengthwise. In a heavy saucepan, bring half of the vanilla bean and the half-and-half just to a boil. Remove from heat.
In a bowl, whisk eggs and sugar until well combined. Add half-and-half mixture in a slow stream, whisking vigorously to prevent eggs from curdling.
Return saucepan to medium-low heat. Cook and stir until thickened and it reaches 170 degrees on an instant-read thermometer (do not boil). Remove vanilla bean.
Pour custard through a fine sieve into a metal bowl. Set bowl in ice water and cool, stirring occasionally. Cover and refrigerate until cold, at least 1 hour. Spoon over fresh berries.
Makes 4 servings.
(From "Gourmet's Sweets" by the editors of Gourmet magazine)
Rich Vanilla Pudding
3/4 cup sugar
3 tbsp. cornstarch
3 cups half-and-half or whole milk
4 egg yolks, beaten
1 tablespoon butter
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Combine sugar and cornstarch in a medium saucepan. Stir in milk. Cook and stir over medium heat until mixture is thickened and bubbly. Cook and stir for 2 minutes more.
Remove from heat. In a thin stream, gradually add 1 cup of the hot mixture to the beaten egg yolks while whisking vigorously to prevent eggs from cooking. Scrape hot egg mixture into the saucepan. Cook and stir over medium heat until thickened and smooth. Do not boil.
Remove from heat and stir in butter and vanilla extract. Pour into a bowl or dessert cups. Cover the surface directly with plastic wrap and chill. Serves six.
May 9, 2005, By JANE SNOW Knight Ridder Newspapers Vanilla is finally getting some respect.
Vanilla prices are falling now, so it's time to break out the recipes. Lavish the stuff in a homemade cream soda, a double vanilla pound cake with rum-vanilla sauce or a luxuriously rich vanilla custard sauce for berries.
Or make some vanilla extract to steep all summer and fall, and bottle for gifts in December.
For the pound cake, you'll need a vanilla bean, vanilla sugar and vanilla extract. The cream soda, homemade extract and custard sauce are made with whole vanilla beans.
Whole vanilla beans are available in the spice aisle of many supermarkets. The pliable, dark-brown pods usually are packaged in a bottle or glass tube.
Some stores sell vanilla sugar, or you could make your own by burying a vanilla bean in a zipper-lock plastic bag filled with 4 or more cups of sugar. Seal the bag. The bean will flavor the sugar within a week or two.
Don't discard the used vanilla bean. Even beans that have been split and used in cooking may be reused once or twice, until the flavor is gone. Wash and dry the bean if it is coated with other ingredients. Wrap it tightly and store at room temperature.
What we know as vanilla beans are actually dried bean pods. Tiny beans the size of poppy seeds are contained inside the pods. Some recipes call for splitting a bean lengthwise and scraping out the seeds, adding both the seeds and the beans to the mixture to be flavored. Scraping out the seeds releases more of the vanilla flavor.
The vanilla beans are the seed pods of orchids that grow in jungles in the tropics and subtropics. Of the 110 species of vanilla orchids, the most commonly cultivated are vanilla planifolia, indigenous to Mexico, and vanilla tahitensis of Tahiti.
The jointed vines produce small, yellow-white orchids followed by fleshy seed pods 8 to 10 inches long. After the pods are picked, they are treated with water or heat, then sun-dried for weeks or months.
Spanish explorers took vanilla plants from Mexico back to Europe, but vanilla was not successfully grown in tropical European colonies until the 1800s, after a French scientist figured out that the orchids must be pollinated by hand. In Mexico, they are pollinated by tiny hummingbirds and a type of bee that doesn't exist outside the Americas.
With so much vanilla expected to flood the market this year, you may be tempted to stock up. That's not a great idea, said Patricia Rain, owner of the mail-order retailer the Vanilla Co. and author of three books about vanilla.
Vanilla extract loses flavor over time, and vanilla beans can dry out. If vanilla extract is tightly capped and stored in a cool, dry place (but not the refrigerator), it will retain its strength for a long time, Rain said. If it is stored improperly, it can lose strength in as little as six months.
Vanilla beans should be wrapped well and stored at room temperature. Vanilla beans that have dried out and hardened may be reconstituted in warm water, but much of the flavor will be lost.
Many connoisseurs believe the best vanilla is Bourbon vanilla, named for the Bourbon islands, where they were first grown outside Mexico. Like Mexican vanilla, Bourbon vanilla — which contains no bourbon liquor — is made from vanilla planifolia. It is the type of vanilla grown in Madagascar. Most of the vanilla grown in Papua New Guinea is vanilla tahitensis.
Mexico produces very little vanilla anymore. Much of the jungle where the orchids grew has been cleared for oil drilling. Rain, who visits the old vanilla-producing region frequently, cautions tourists about buying Mexican vanilla.
"No matter what the label says, odds are 99 percent that it is fake," Rain said.
Use only real vanilla in the following recipes. This year, you'll be able to afford it.
Homemade Vanilla Extract
5 vanilla beans, sliced open lengthwise
2 cups vodka
Place the beans and alcohol in a lidded jar, cover tightly and store in a cool, dark place, shaking once a week. The longer the beans steep, the stronger the vanilla will be. Steep for several months to a year for the best flavor. Pour into decorative bottles if desired, including a piece of vanilla bean in each one. Cap tightly.
The Perfect Creme Soda
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
2 tablespoon vanilla extract, or to taste
Soda water
In a medium saucepan, combine sugar and water and stir over medium-high heat until sugar is dissolved. Bring to a boil, add vanilla bean and allow to boil for about 3 minutes, or until syrup thickens slightly. Remove from heat and cool. Stir in 2 tablespoons or more vanilla extract.
To make soda, remove vanilla bean from syrup and put 4 tablespoons of the vanilla syrup in a tall glass. Add ice and fill with soda water. Taste, adding syrup if needed.
Note: You can make creme sodas using just extract. Add another tablespoon of extract to the simple syrup after it cools.
(From "Vanilla" by Patricia Rain)
Double Vanilla Pound Cake
1 large vanilla bean, split or cut into pieces
1 cup milk, room temperature4 cups sifted flour1 tbsp. baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt (if using salted butter, delete)
2 cups unsalted butter, at room temperature
2-1/2 cups vanilla sugar
6 jumbo eggs, at room temperature
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
Rum-Vanilla Glaze (recipe follows)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pour milk into a saucepan, add the vanilla bean and bring almost to a boil. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature. Remove vanilla bean and set aside.
Resift the flour with the baking powder and the salt onto a sheet of waxed paper; set aside.
In a large bowl, cream the butter with an electric mixer until light, about 3 minutes. Add the vanilla sugar in two portions, beating thoroughly after each portion is added. Beat in eggs one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl to ensure an even mixture. Blend in vanilla extract.
On low speed, add the sifted dry ingredients alternately with the milk, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Pour batter into a lightly buttered, floured 10-inch tube pan, a large square baking pan or three loaf pans. Bake at 350 degrees on the lowest oven rack for about 1 hour, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake emerges clean and dry.
Cool cake in the pan on a rack for 10 minutes. Prick holes all over the top of the cake with a thin knife or toothpick and slowly spoon glaze over the cake, allowing the syrup to absorb into the cake.
Rum-Vanilla Glaze
1 cup sugar1 cup water
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup rum (optional)
Bring sugar and water to a boil in a small saucepan, stirring to dissolve sugar. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes, or until syrup begins to thicken. Cool slightly before adding extract and rum.
(From "Vanilla" by Patricia Rain)
Vanilla Custard Sauce for Fresh Berries
1/2 vanilla bean
2 cups half-and-half
2 large eggs
1/2 cup sugar
Have ready a bowl of ice and cold water. Split vanilla bean lengthwise. In a heavy saucepan, bring half of the vanilla bean and the half-and-half just to a boil. Remove from heat.
In a bowl, whisk eggs and sugar until well combined. Add half-and-half mixture in a slow stream, whisking vigorously to prevent eggs from curdling.
Return saucepan to medium-low heat. Cook and stir until thickened and it reaches 170 degrees on an instant-read thermometer (do not boil). Remove vanilla bean.
Pour custard through a fine sieve into a metal bowl. Set bowl in ice water and cool, stirring occasionally. Cover and refrigerate until cold, at least 1 hour. Spoon over fresh berries.
Makes 4 servings.
(From "Gourmet's Sweets" by the editors of Gourmet magazine)
Rich Vanilla Pudding
3/4 cup sugar
3 tbsp. cornstarch
3 cups half-and-half or whole milk
4 egg yolks, beaten
1 tablespoon butter
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Combine sugar and cornstarch in a medium saucepan. Stir in milk. Cook and stir over medium heat until mixture is thickened and bubbly. Cook and stir for 2 minutes more.
Remove from heat. In a thin stream, gradually add 1 cup of the hot mixture to the beaten egg yolks while whisking vigorously to prevent eggs from cooking. Scrape hot egg mixture into the saucepan. Cook and stir over medium heat until thickened and smooth. Do not boil.
Remove from heat and stir in butter and vanilla extract. Pour into a bowl or dessert cups. Cover the surface directly with plastic wrap and chill. Serves six.
May 9, 2005, By JANE SNOW Knight Ridder Newspapers Vanilla is finally getting some respect.
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