Saturday, June 27, 2009

One of my Favorite Ingredients: Vanilla, Vanilla, Vanilla

Let me begin by saying, I love Vanilla. It is one of my favorite ingredient. I am always searching for the finest vanilla. I found a company called Boston Vanilla Bean Company which I must share. It serves the finest Grade-A vanilla beans such as Uganda, Mexican, India, Papua New Guinea, and Madagascar Beans. This company has USDA NOP Organic Certification vanilla beans and follow all fair trade agreements. Most of their beans can be bought organically.

They mainly sell their Imported Vanilla Beans, but also developed Vanilla Bean Paste, Vanilla Extracts and Ground Vanilla. I could not accurately put into words how amazing it is to use their vanilla paste. I made triple vanilla cheesecake, triple vanilla sugar cookies and I used the paste in my french toast this morning. It is by far one of the best products that have ever graced my kitchen. I would like to thank Steve and Boston Vanilla Bean Company for that.

Another aspect that I appreciate about this company is the pride they show in their product. Steve from Boston Vanilla Bean Company has called me and emailed me to give me advice, pointers, explanations and showed such passion. This company has been featured on Food Network by chef Alton Brown and by other well known chefs such as Albino Tuosto. Yet, they are humble enough to talk to me on the phone for an hour about their product. It gives me such honor to work with such great people and products. I truly wish everyone had this passion about their products.

You can find Steve and The Boston Vanilla Bean Company @ http://www.bostonvanillabeans.com/
Their site has history of the vanilla bean, recipes and a shop. Which I might add, their price for their vanilla beans is fair. Please take a look.

Enjoy!!
I am going to share a few recipes that I have used BVBC products with.
Vanilla Sugar:

2 Vanilla Beans
4-6 cps. of sugar

1. Scrape two vanilla beans clean and add to a food processor. Add the 4-6 cps. of sugar to the food processor. Process until combined. Add the empty pods to the bottom of the canister. Add the sugar.

Let me just say, this makes coffee in the morning a 100x better.


TRIPLE VANILLA CHEESECAKE

CRUST:
1 1/2 of the bags in a box of cinnamon graham crackers
1/3 cp. My Vanilla Sugar
1 tsp. of BVBC Vanilla Paste (You can sub for reg. vanilla extracts)
1/3 cp pecans
1 stick of melted butter


Add the sugar to the food processor.
Add the pecans and BVBC Vanilla Paste (You can use regular extracts)
Add the graham crackers.
Slowly add the butter as you process in the food processor. The butter must be melted.

Press into a 9.5 in. spring pan. Put into a 350 oven for 8-10 minutes. While this is baking make the cheesecake
THE FILLING:
4 8 oz. 1/3 less fat Cream Cheese, soft
1 1/2 cp. vanilla sugar
1 1/2 vanilla paste
2 vanilla beans
3 TB flour
5 eggs
Add the softened cream cheese and sugar to a mixer. Mix until smooth.
This is what the cream cheese and sugar should look like.....

Add the vanilla paste
Add two beans. You have to cut a vanilla bean in half.

Inside the vanilla bean you will see a bunch of black seeds. Scrap it clean. Add the pulp into the cream cheese mixture. (You can add the empty vanilla beans into a canister of sugar to give it a vanilla taste.)
I used two Mexican Vanilla beans.

Mix...You can see the beautiful black flecks in the cream cheese mixture. Add the three tablespoons of flour and mix.
Add the eggs. One at a time. Mix after each one.

Add on top of the baked crust. Cook on 350 for 75 minutes.
Let cool and then refridge. I leave it in the fridge overnight.
Last, but not least let those kiddos lick those glorious beaters

The final product! This was so great! I served this to my husbands coworkers and it was a huge success. Enjoy!!

17 comments:

  1. Vanilla is my favourite as well! So far from boring!

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  2. That's a lot of vanilla. Then again...you never have enough vanilla, right?

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  3. Sounds delicious - intense and vanilla-y.

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  4. I just went crazy buying up a ton of beans and a few bottles of vodka. I've made enough extract to last forever and to give away and still have beans left. I will definitely be trying this recipe. It looks amazing!!!

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  5. Thanks for sharing this delicious recipe.
    Little chef seems very busy tasting!
    So cute.
    Love always.

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  6. That looks so delicious, the texture looks just perfect!

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  7. Finsmom-Vanilla rocks..Thank you

    Jen-To be honest, the vanilla flavor was still mild it was not overpowering. It was really good.

    haleysuzanee-It was a mild vanilla taste even with all of the vanilla, but it was intense with flavor and creaminess.Thank you

    Sunshinemom-I was thinking of making my own extract. Was it hard? Thank you for the idea

    HH- I always appreciate your comments. Thank you.

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  8. alwayswinner786-Your comments are always so sweet. Thank you so much.

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  9. Love vanilla! Who doesn't? This is a great recipe thanks for sharing.
    Those beaters.... The best invention, in more ways than one.

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  10. Looks great! I made a cheesecake yesterday and thought about adding vanilla bean..I guess I got sidetracked and forgot. Definitely trying this next time!

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  11. Looks awesome! My mouth is watering!

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  12. Miranda, don't be a tease! I want that french toast recipe, stat! :)

    Also, I love that the Boston Vanilla Bean company gives buyers the opportunity to purchase smaller amounts of beans. I don't use vanilla beans often, but would definitely get one of the "five" packs of beans to make my honey's coffee sugar a little more festive ;) Thanks for the tip!

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  13. Beautiful, truly yummy sounding and looking:))

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  14. Wow I didnt know there were so many different types of vanilla! This recipe looks great! Vanilla and sweet cheese are 2 of my favourite flavours!!

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  15. Vanilla is so far from being plain! This cheesecake looks so scrumptious and fluffy - I wish I could like the beater! Thanks again for showcasing another great product; it's a great discovery for the rest of us!

    And thank you for your comment on my latest post! The Oikos yogurt in my potato salad was perfect - it was thick and creamy; no need for mayo or sour cream! The recipe can be found in the post titled 'Simple is Good' (from May, I think).

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  16. Wow, this sounds amazing and the vanilla bean paste sounds so interesting. I'll definitely be checking out these products.

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  17. When I was growing up, I never liked vanilla much. I was a chocoholic. As I got older (more mature?), I switched and now I totally love vanilla. Normally I'm not a big fan of cheesecake, but with all that vanilla, I'd totally devour that!!! I wish I could get all the different kinds of vanilla that you can get.

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Thank you so much for letting me know how you feel about my dishes.