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Trendy vanilla combos for 2008

July 14, 2008 in recipes | No comments

Vanilla bean and cardamom

McCormick [via], the spice manufacturer, made a top ten list of trendy flavor pairings for 2008. Among them, vanilla bean and cardamom:

…if predictions are correct, look for all these flavor pairings to crop up even more in unexpected dishes…

  • Vanilla Bean and Cardamom: A flavor match made in heaven taps into America’s growing passion for indulgent, yet approachable luxury.

Go read the rest.

Make vanilla sugar

June 20, 2008 in Vanilla questions, recipes | No comments

Vanilla sugar is super simple, just add table sugar to vanilla beans and wait a few weeks. An occasional shake helps expose all the sugar crystals to vanilla goodness. Vanilla speckled sugar makes a great compliment to a homemade vanilla extract gift box — and it can be made from “waste” vanilla beans.

Here are three vanilla sugar recipes:

  1. I always put sugar in empty vanilla bean packaging. There’s a bunch of great vanilla flavor stuck to the bag — especially if the beans were vacuum packed. Shown here on the left.
  2. Beans already used to make extract still have plenty of flavor to make vanilla sugar. Dry post-extract beans for a few days, then cover them with sugar in a zip-top bag. Shown here on the right.
  3. You can also use whole or chopped new vanilla beans, but method 1 and 2 are more economical.