Sunday, May 18, 2014

Vanilla Infused Sugar


A few weeks back, I had finished bottling homemade vanilla extract (see May 3rd, 2014 post). I was left with all the spent beans. I could not even fathom throwing them away or composting them – what to do?



Vanilla  Infused Sugar – of course!

I dried the beans on a baking tray at 170°F (the lowest my oven goes otherwise I would have gone lower) for about 60 minutes.





Next I scraped the tiny vanilla bean specks (I have heard this
called vanilla caviar) into a 5 pound jar of white granular sugar. I put the dried beans into my food processer and chopped them up a bit as well. I added these to sugar. I left the sugar to get infused for about 2.5 weeks, shaking the container every few days to keep it nicely mixed up.
The best part was packaging it. I chose wide mouth pint Ball canning jars from their Elite Series. Ooo Laa Laa – they note that the Elite Series is ideal for ‘your signature creations including flavored mustards, savory dressings, fruit-filled jams, dipping sauces and luscious chutneys’. I would add ‘and vanilla infused sugar’ to their list! 


When I have seen vanilla sugar at specialty shops it is always in nice packaging. I wanted aesthetically pleasing and practical packaging (as in ‘let me get a spoonful or a scoopful easily’ packaging).











To prepare the sugar for going in the jar, I removed the large bean pod pieces but sifting the sugar in a colander. This left the sugar with vanilla specks for the final product and kept the larger harder bean pod pieces separate and later, discarded.


One 5 pound bag of sugar filled 7 and ½ of my jars. Now the extra fun part – using it (I put a spoonful in my coffee this morning) and gifting it.

As with almost any culinary adventure, there are many more folks trying the same things and sharing them on their own blogs. For inspiration I checked out my old favorite blog the kitchn and a new favorite one Love, Pomegranate House.

The whole process was quick – the longest part was the 2-3 weeks of infusing – but like all of us, I had plenty to do while it quietly and effortlessly did its infusing. 
All I had to do was create the space and then back away and let it happen. A lesson with larger applications in life!

Sweet greetings,

Katie

Saturday, May 3, 2014

Brewing & Bottling Vanilla Extract

homemade vanilla extract: brewed, bottled and ready for use

Back near Christmas I wanted to make and bottle my own vanilla extract to give as gifts. Mostly because I like to give useful gifts, homemade a bonus, and secretly, or not so - I can't stand imitation flavors. This was one way I could make the world a better place and improve my friend's chocolate chip cookies too. Oh, and good real vanilla extract is not cheap. I did not start in time to give as gifts, so I simply started the process at that time - which has worked out well because this has been a no stress experience.

I followed some tips I found online, but mostly from a post in one of my favorite blogs - the kitchn. Here is a link to their post and recipe.


Vodka, beans, bottles, caps and patience - and voila!
For my vanilla extract project I modified as follows:


I used vodka (maybe next time I will try rum or bourbon) because I wanted a neutral alcohol that would not compete with the vanilla bean.


I chose Madagascar beans. 

Amber bottles getting filled.


I chose threaded amber glass bottles with caps. This part was especially fun for me because I LOVE pharmaceutical grade bottles (I used to sell them and know a lot more about screw threads, glass types, forming process than I let on). 

My bottles happen to be threaded and molded and I bought them from Amazon. Conveniently they came with caps. 

So easy.

See all the goodies those 'kitchenhose' caught! 
Another modification from my kitchen was 'extrasupport' pantyhose to strain my extract. Cheese cloth and coffee filters work too but I wanted my strainer material to cling to the mouth of my canning jar so pouring it and straining it would be a breeze, and it worked like a charm! 
(I call this secret kitchen tool my 'kitchenhose' and it lives in my baking drawer). In the photo you can see how well it worked to get the particles out of the liquid as I strained.

All ready for  labeling
All that is left is to make some cute tags and decide who to gift them to. 
I also need to remember that results will be better - and darker - if I store the container in the dark while it is doing its thing. 

One fifth of vodka filled 12 - 4 ounce bottles.

You can read a lot more about vanilla here

Now, I have all these spent vanilla beans and I can't just throw them into the compost! Next project: vanilla infused sugar.