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!!