Its easy - just make your own vanilla essence at home.
I realised that this could be done while I was in the midst of my herbal lessons. Part of that involved 'macerating' herbs to create a therapeutic product - all you have to do is put dried herb in a bottle of brandy, let it sit for a specified period of time to allow the therapeutic ingredients in the herb to leach out into solution.
It occurred to me that it must be possible to create a vanilla essence by macerating vanilla beans in brandy. My first attempts were successful - I used three whole vanilla beans, chopped them up, and covered them with 500mls of brandy. After a few months in the back of the pantry it made a very nice vanilla essence that I could be pretty liberal with because it was so cheap to make!
This week I saw a similar recipe, but the maker had used 3 vanilla beans to about 250ml of rum. That sounds good too.
Ideally, you would have one bottle macerating in the cupboard while you use the matured one, to add to fruit smoothies for an extra dose of very natural flavour!
Have you ever tried making vanilla essence? What were your experiences? Join the discussion by leaving your comment below...
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