Make Your Own Vanilla Extract

Ever since I started baking about a year and a half ago, I've noticed that the most expensive ingredient I've burned through is vanilla. I just accepted this as it was, finding different varieties that I liked.

Then I noticed an article on how to make your OWN vanilla extract. I was intrigued in the way that I am when I hear someone raises their own chickens. "Oh that would be neat, but I couldn't do it..."


After seeing more articles referring to same thing, I decided to try it. I had no idea what a vanilla bean WAS, let alone how to buy them successfully. In the few glimpses I'd had of vanilla beans, they were hideously expensive ($15 for 2 beans!).

On a whim in February, I checked the internet for vanilla beans and found that I could have 20 beans for $10.50. I bought some, received them a few days later and broke out an old jelly jar.

Here's how you do it:

You need about 6-8 vanilla beans to start with.
An old, clean jar.
And about 1.5 cups of alcohol. I used cheap vodka.

Pour the vodka (or whatever alcohol, I hear rum is good too) into the clean jar. Slice open your vanilla beans. I also found later that it helped to cut them in half, so they were always under the liquid instead of poking out. Put the beans in the jar. Put the top on.

Put it away in the cupboard and every day or two, shake the jar.

I also saw in another article that they recommended that you buy 1-2 jars of vanilla extract because you will be using them while your extract brews. Quite true. I've also seen recommendations that you pour some already prepared extract into the new jar. I don't see why you should do that.. but I suppose you could.

It takes about two months for your homemade extract to brew. Any time before that, you are just making vanilla flavored vodka (or alcohol). And while that is very nice, it's not what you want for baking.

In two months, check your extract. It should smell and taste better than what you are already using for baking. When mine was ready, I poured some into an old vanilla jar I saved. I dropped half a bean in that jar too, just for fun.

Re-top off the larger extract jar with your alcohol and put it back in the cupboard. Next time you need some, it will be there. Every time you fill your little bottle up, top the larger jar off. The beans will last for a long time.. and you have an unlimited supply of vanilla!

Also, every time you use a vanilla bean in a recipe, put the leftover bean husk in the jar! (If it was in something, make sure you rinse it off first.) You never have a reason to throw a bean husk away. (Are they even called husks? They look like one.) Don't forget to shake it!

I also threw a bean and some sugar into a Ziploc bag and made vanilla sugar, which some recipes call for and just tastes amazing on morning toast.

Now just to get around to getting those chickens...

Two Things.. Ok. Three things.

First of all, we cranked up the new Cuisinart Ice Cream maker that my mother sent us for Easter.

And like all things, I chose to make the first batch the "hard way," as in making it full fat with egg yolks. When do this, you need to cook the mixture. Which results in you needing to cool the mixture back down. A bit of a timing let down, but definitely higher quality ice cream.

In all, the ice cream turned out awesome. We are very happy to have the new ice cream maker. Since last night, I've realized there were much easier ways to make ice cream in the new Cuisinart.. so we made another less fat, no egg yolk ice cream. Which is also very very good and accepted by the children. We'll stick with that one for quick turn-arounds.

*******

Secondly, this weekend was super baking weekend. I made german chocolate cupcakes for an order, a three layer carrot cake, and last but certainly not least - Cinnamon Rolls.

I HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend Alton Brown's Overnight Cinnamon Roll recipe. Yes, it's a time investment. But like the egg yolk ice cream, so much more worth your time. Just be prepared to work on them for a while, but your family will love you (more). Lots.


I am definitely not a cake decorator.


Amazing.


Cake "Innards". So very yummy.

Buffalo Chicken Pizza

Buffalo Chicken Pizza is a new favorite in the house and OH SO easy to make.

Ingredients:

pizza crust (we usually cheat with a crust from Trader Joe's. I have yet to find one I like to make.)
Chicken tenderloins cut into small pieces (2-3 total)
1/2 cup of Frank's Hot Sauce
1/2-3/4 cup of Ranch dressing
onions
mozzarella cheese

Preheat oven to 400*.

optional: Cook the chicken in a bit of butter, but you can definitely leave that out if you like.

Lay the pizza crust on an oiled pan. We have been using cookie sheets which makes an easy to cut rectangle pizza.

Cover the raw chicken in hot sauce and place in a heated pan. Cook until done. Once the chicken is cooked fully through, let it rest on the side for a minute while you do the following...

Cover the pizza crust in about a 1/2 cup of ranch dressing. You can go light dressing on this if you like. If you like lots of dressing, go heavier. It's up to your preference.

Lay the chicken pieces and raw onions (or you can brown them a little which is also YUM) over the pizza evenly. Cover in your desired amount of mozzarella cheese.

Cook the pizza for about 10 minutes in a hot oven. Once the top is browned, it's done!

Cut and eat!

Brownies and Ice Cream

First of all, I would like to say that this is something I would *love* to own:


It's the Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker.. oooh.

I see awesome homemade ice cream recipes all the time and it's pretty hard to make WITHOUT an ice cream maker.

Secondly, I would like to share with you the BEST brownie recipe in the WORLD. Every time I make these, I get tons of compliments.

Supernatural Brownies (from Buffchickpea.com)

2 sticks unsalted butter, each cut into thirds
8 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate (I actually just used chocolate chips, works great!)
4 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar (recipe calls for dark, I used light and it was fine)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour

One 13x9x2-inch pan, buttered (I have used butter and nonstick spray, both work).

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Put butter and chocolate in a heavy saucepan on medium-low and melt. Stir occasionally as they melt. (This can also be done in a microwave, but I personally hate doing it that way.)

Whisk eggs together in a large bowl, then whisk in the salt, sugars, and vanilla. Stir in the chocolate and butter mixture, then fold in the flour.
*Note: I did this by hand. It's not necessary to do in your mixer and it might overmix the brownies.*

Pour batter into prepared pan and spread evenly. Bake for about 45 minutes, until top has formed a shiny crust.

In my oven, this takes 30 minutes. I made these in 9x9 pans (two of them) the other day and baked them for 20 minutes. They came out fantastically fudgey-cakey. Probably in a non-crappy oven, this would be achieved at 30 minutes. But once your crust is cracked and set, it's time to take them out. Don't overbake!

ICE: Voting Time!

Voting is here: http://www.ironcupcakemilwaukee.com/

:)

Daring Bakers - February 2009 Challenge: Flourless Chocolate Cake

Daring Baker's Challenge:

The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE's blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef.We have chosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge.

I missed January's challenge deadline, so I was intent on getting this one done.

The cake was amazing. I baked it in a springform pan and then cut small hearts out with a cookie cutter. It would have helped if the cookie cutter was deeper, but it still turned out great.

I'd never made ice cream before even in an ice cream maker, so this was really interesting. I loved how it came out. It was REALLY rich and really good. Now I want the Cuisinart ice cream maker REAL BAD.

Also, getting my hands on some vanilla beans was the best thing I've ever done. They made the ice cream SUPER yummy. You get find them online so much cheaper than you can in the grocery store.

Now that I've done it, I wish I had altered the recipe a little. I just wanted to see how it came out. I'm sure I will next time. I'm actually hoping the March challenge is a little HARDER... this was pretty easy to be honest.



Chocolate Valentino
Preparation Time: 20 minutes
16 ounces (1 pound) of semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped
½ cup (1 stick) plus 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter
5 large eggs separated

1. Put chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl and set over a pan of simmering water (the bottom of the bowl should not touch the water) and melt, stirring often.

2. While your chocolate butter mixture is cooling. Butter your pan and line with a parchment circle then butter the parchment.

3. Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites and put into two medium/large bowls.

4. Whip the egg whites in a medium/large grease free bowl until stiff peaks are formed (do not over-whip or the cake will be dry).

5. With the same beater beat the egg yolks together.

6. Add the egg yolks to the cooled chocolate.

7. Fold in 1/3 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture and follow with remaining 2/3rds. Fold until no white remains without deflating the batter. {link of folding demonstration}

8. Pour batter into prepared pan, the batter should fill the pan 3/4 of the way full, and bake at 375F

9. Bake for 25 minutes until an instant read thermometer reads 140F/60C.
Note – If you do not have an instant read thermometer, the top of the cake will look similar to a brownie and a cake tester will appear wet.
10. Cool cake on a rack for 10 minutes then unmold.

Dharm's Ice Cream Recipe
Classic Vanilla Ice Cream
Preparation Time: 30 minutes

Recipe comes from the Ice Cream Book by Joanna Farrow and Sara Lewis (tested modifications and notes in parentheses by Dharm)

Ingredients
1 Vanilla Pod
1 ¼ cups Semi Skimmed Milk – in the U.S. this is 2% fat (or use fresh full fat milk that is pasteurised and homogenised {as opposed to canned or powdered}). Dharm used whole milk.
4 large egg yolks
6 tbsp caster sugar {superfine sugar can be achieved in a food processor or use regular granulated sugar}
1 tsp corn flour {cornstarch}
1 ¼ cups Double Cream (48% butter fat) {in the U.S. heavy cream is 37% fat)
{you can easily increase your cream's fat content by heating 1/4 cup of heavy cream with 3 Tbs of butter until melted - cool to room temperature and add to the heavy cream as soon as whisk marks appear in the cream, in a slow steady stream, with the mixer on low speed. Raise speed and continue whipping the cream) or use heavy cream the difference will be in the creaminess of the ice cream.

1. Using a small knife slit the vanilla pod lengthways. Pour the milk into a heavy based saucepan, add the vanilla pod and bring to the boil. Remove from heat and leave for 15 minutes to allow the flavours to infuse

Lift the vanilla pod up. Holding it over the pan, scrape the black seeds out of the pod with a small knife so that they fall back into the milk. SET the vanilla pod aside and bring the milk back to the boil.

2. Whisk the egg yolks, sugar and corn-flour in a bowl until the mixture is thick and foamy.

3. Gradually pour in the hot milk, whisking constantly. Return the mixture to the pan and cook over a gentle hear, stirring all the time.

4. When the custard thickens and is smooth, pour it back into the bowl. Cool it then chill.

5. By Hand: Whip the cream until it has thickened but still falls from a spoon. Fold it into the custard and pour into a plastic tub or similar freeze-proof container. Freeze for 6 hours or until firm enough to scoop, beating it twice (during the freezing process – to get smoother ice cream or else the ice cream will be icy and coarse)

Leftovers.. A PB&J Story.

I'm not going to include a recipe because I'm evil.

But I WILL tell what these are.

Magnolia's Vanilla Birthday Cake with Smitten Kitchen's Peanut Butter Frosting and Neverbashfulwithbutter's grape frosting, which is not linkable anymore. BUT that is buttercream with grape jelly mixed in. :)

Superduper awesome.