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Because 2 Wasn’t Enough …
Guess who bought more vanilla? Yeah, this girl.
I’d been wanting to try some different beans, so I purchased a quarter-pound of Grade A of Papua New Guinea beans, as well as another quarter-pound of extract-grade beans (both purchased from Amadeus Trading Company, same source as the previous supply of beans).
The extract-grade beans were still as dry & brittle as I remembered. They’re being used for various other projects I won’t go into right now.
The PNG beans, however, were quite plump, tender, and oily (in a good way):
I’d purchased a proper kitchen scale, and determined that 12 beans was approximately 2 ounces, so I opted for 10 ounces of Lone Star Vodka. Slicing the beans and scraping out the caviar was easy, particularly with the beans being so plump.
Here’s a sampling of the caviar scraped out of the inside from half a Grade A PNG bean (scraped out using the back of the knife):
After slicing, scraping, and cutting the pieces, they were all put into the mason jar and covered with the vodka. The colour turned a deep, rich brown, almost on par with the 2-month old bottle of extract-grade beans. The best part, for me, was that even after washing my hands, a shower, and countless pumps with hand sanitizer later, my fingers still smelled of vanilla. I can think of worse things.
It will be an interesting journey. I still have some beans left, so I’ll need to come up with a plan for those. The other 2 jars are now usable, but weak. I haven’t tried them yet - I’ll probably give it another month before I break them open and start playing with the extracts. For now, I’ll leave you with the 3 vanilla extracts. The 8oz Uganda Gold is on the left, 12oz extract-grade in the middle, and the PNG on the right.
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So … uh … what’s happening with that whole ‘vanilification’ process?
Still waiting.
I’ve been baking with the vanilla salt, and occasionally dig out the vanilla sugar, but not a whole lot’s going on with the extract yet. They both still look like bottles of vanilla, and both still smell like vanilla & alcohol. A couple more months, and I’ll break open the 8oz bottle, and start baking with it. I’ll post more then.
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While We’re Waiting ….
The extract won’t be ready for at least a few more weeks (weak, but ready), so in the mean time, what do we do?
Well, how about the Vanilla Salt?
It’s really not a whole lot to look at. It’s vanilla beans & caviar mixed with kosher salt. All the caviar sinks to the bottom, no matter how much I shake it up:
And the vanilla sugar?
Both of them are quite fragrant, at the least. Of course, they’ve both sat around for a couple of weeks, so what do I do with vanilla salt & vanilla sugar?
Make baked goods, of course!
The photo of the brownies (made with 1/4 tsp of the vanilla salt) didn’t turn out so well, and I won’t know how they taste until tomorrow; I did use regular sugar for the bulk of the sugar in the recipe, saving the vanilla sugar for *drumroll*
Cinnamon-Vanilla-Sugar:
What do we do with that?
We make snickerdoodles:
No, I’m not really noticing much in the way of vanilla flavoring mixed in with the cinnamon, but they’re still quite tasty.
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Just a Quick Note
And really, more of an apology. The photos provided in this tumblr blog are all taken with my iPhone 4 (for ease of uploading). Needless to say, the mason jars have a highly reflective surface, and the lighting in my kitchen isn’t exactly the greatest for quality photos. I do end up taking several photos, and picking the best out of those to upload. I do use Instagram to snap the photos with, but with few (obvious) exceptions, none of them have been retouched or run through any kind of filter.
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Batch 2 - 1 Week Later
For comparison’s sake, here’s the second batch, after one week. The colour is rich and dark, and there’s no strong scent of alcohol when I open the lid. That said, the vanilla scent is fairly weak at this point - but it’s only been 1 week.
The bits & pieces of vanilla beans in the 2nd batch:
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Batch 1 - 2 Weeks Later
2 weeks after the start of the extraction process. On the 8oz jar, as mentioned before, I’ve noticed an almost oily residue around the top of the extract. I’m suspecting this is because they’re a higher quality vanilla bean, rather than drier extract-grade beans, and have a higher water & oil content.
Once shaken, the oil mixes back into the extract. Uncapping the jar, and taking a whiff, I notice there’s still a strong smell of alcohol. That said, it’s only been 2 weeks.
And here’s a view of the bean pieces:
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A Side by Side Comparison
On the left: The second batch of extract; 10oz of vodka to about 1/8th a lb of extract grade vanilla beans. This is day 4 of extraction.
On the right: the first batch of extract; 8oz of vodka to 10 Uganda Gold vanilla beans. This is almost a week & a half into the extraction process.
And yes, those are pieces of the vanilla beans you’re seeing up against the jars. The little specs on the glass are the vanilla bean caviar.
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In Case You Didn’t Believe Me:
This is a box of imitation vanilla (or, more specifically, a mix of “natural and artificial flavors”) I found on a grocery store shelf. It’s apparently a fairly popular brand.
Please note the second ingredient:
Yeah, that was the eye-opener. Also, “vanillin” is NOT an “artificial flavor”. It’s what gives vanilla beans their vanilla flavor.
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Why Go Through All the Trouble?
I’d said in my first (or second) post that I’ve become a big fan of buying in bulk, and making it myself. I’ve always done my baked goods from scratch: cookies, brownies, cakes, pies, breads (I’ve never used a bread machine; that’s cheating), and the like.
I could leave my answer at a simple: I love the construction and the chemistry that goes into cooking; or maybe it’s my love of puzzles - putting pieces together to see what I can get out of it, what new things I can create. There’s the praise I get, the fact that better chefs than I will fight people for my chocolate chip cookies (which never last very long); that it’s something I taught myself how to do, and the fact its one of the few things I can do well, and share with other people.
All of that is very true, but there’s more to it.
It’s also healthier.
Making your own Italian Seasoning is one thing: you toss a bunch of spices together, with basil & oregano, and you pretty much have Italian Seasoning (although one could argue that because my heritage is primarily Italian, any mixture of spices I put together becomes Italian Seasoning by default). You read the ingredient label on a bottle pre-mixed Italian Seasoning, and there are no surprises, no fillers, no preservatives, no sweeteners. The only real caveat is that you can’t take anything out if you don’t like that particular flavoring.
(As a side note: I do the same thing with my yogurt: I buy Stoneyfiled Farm’s Non-Fat Organic Greek Yogurt because all it contains is skim milk & yogurt cultures. No fillers, no stabilizers, no preservatives. I add my own fruits & honey to it)
It wasn’t until I started looking into making my own vanilla extract that I started paying more attention to the label on the store-bought bottles. Even the “organic” and “high grade” extracts had added stuff in them: corn syrup, water, sugar; one label I read even said it contained propylene glycol (something I’ve started seeing in mouth washes)!
Yeah, none of those are anything I want extra added to my baked goods. As well, home-made vanilla extract is often compared to a fine wine: it keeps getting better with age. The jars in my pantry will need to steep for 6 months before the extraction process is complete. Once that’s done, I can strain out the pieces of skin (I’m still undecided as to whether or not I’m going to leave the caviar; and the skins can still be reused, once dried, for more batches of vanilla sugar), and then it’s done. Store bought vanilla? “Best if used by … “. It’s alcohol. Alcohol doesn’t go bad. Kept in an air-tight, light-tight container, in a cool, dry place, it should last the casual vanilla user a good several years.
Don’t get me wrong - I’m not on the whole “go green/organic” bandwagon - I still think a lot of that is a crock, and there’s not enough regulation to justify the added cost. BUT some things just make sense to make yourself.
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What Else Can We Do?
The day after I started the 2nd batch of extract, I thought I’d give a go at trying to rehydrate the remaining beans.
Yeah, that didn’t work so well.
I also bought some flat cutting mats, and used one of those on top of a green, textured pantry liner (to hold it in place). That worked considerably better for cutting and scraping the caviar, and made considerably less mess than trying to cut on my usual cutting boards. I still ended up with caviar in my eyes, but much less than before. I also opted to use my fingers to try and plump up the dried beans a bit, finding them easier to work with that way. A few of the beans gave off an almost oily caviar.
One pile of caviar and one pile of chopped skins later, I start portioning them out: some additional caviar & skins with another 1/4 cup of salt for the vanilla salt, a few broken up skin pieces in 1 cup of organic cane-dripped sugar for some vanilla sugar, and the remainder, I added to the extract.
That’s going to be one very strong extract if it works out.
Next on my list: buying a few more beans - most likely some from either Madagascar or Papua New Guinea (PNG) - just to get some variety, and find what works out best. And, as a baker, I can never have too much vanilla extract.
