Vanilla Extract

In case you haven't noticed, I have a mild, yet healthy obsession at the moment with homemade vanilla extract. Not only does it show through on several of my recent blog posts, but my apartment has a very specific designated vanilla resting place where I have several labeled bottles either ready to be used, or in the process of becoming extract.

Could someone please explain to me how something so easy to make costs about $10 for a small bottle at my grocery store? 

Not only is my homemade extract saving me money, but there is such a huge difference in the vanilla flavor quality in my creations now. I like to keep my extract un-strained so that I can see all the little vanilla flecks in everything I make. 

I have been ordering my vanilla beans online. I've used the following sources with good results: Amazon.com and  The Organic Vanilla Bean Company



Homemade Vanilla Extract
From Eating, Etc. 

1 750-ml well-sanitized, dark-colored glass wine bottle
1 wine bottle stopper or clean cork
2c vodka 
8+ good quality vanilla beans, split & snipped in ½” pieces

1) Pour vodka into wine bottle.
2) Place split, snipped vanilla bean pieces in the vodka or rum.
3) Cork & shake well.
4) Let sit for approximately 30 days, shaking the bottle, daily, to distribute the tiny vanilla seeds well for maximum flavor. (This is very forgiveable; even if you don’t shake it that often, it still turns out fine.)
5) After 30 days, begin using.

Mocha Brownies

These brownies are saving my life right now. Allow me to explain: I had surgery on my foot last week. Wait! Don't freak out (I think I did enough of that for everyone)! But it was planned and hopefully I will be dancing again soon. I made these brownies before the surgery and now that I am recovering on the couch, with my "toes above my nose", I look forward every day to eating one of these splendid morsels of awesome-ness after I eat dinner.

The brownies themselves are super chocolatey and definitely on the fudge end of the spectrum. I am usually not a "frosting on my brownies" type of person, but I listened to The Pioneer Woman (as I always try to) and smothered a healthy layer of mocha frosting on top. 



One bite was pure heaven! I have kept them in the refrigerator to keep the frosting a little bit harder. The coffee flavor of the frosting with the fudge brownie....WOO! Out of control! Thanks, Pioneer Woman, for giving me 5 extra brownie-pounds since I can't work out right now. Love, Sugar.



Mocha Brownies from The Pioneer Woman's Cookbook

Four 1-ounce squares unsweetened chocolate

1/2 pound (2 sticks) butter

2 cups sugar

4 large eggs

3 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

11/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 pound (2 sticks) butter, softened

5 cups powdered sugar

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1/2 to 3/4 cup brewed coffee, cooled to room temperature

Preheat the oven to 325°F. Grease a 9 inch square pan. 

To make the brownie batter, place the chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl. Melt the chocolate in the microwave in 30-second increments, being careful not to let it burn. Set it aside to cool slightly.

In a medium mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar. Beat in the eggs.

With the mixer on low speed, drizzle in the melted chocolate. Add the vanilla extract and mix.

Add the flour to the bowl and mix just until combined; do not over mix.

Pour the batter into the baking pan. Spread it to even out the surface. Bake at 325°F for 45 to 50 minutes, until the center is no longer soft. Set the brownies aside to cool completely before icing.

To make the icing, in a large mixing bowl, combine the butter, powdered sugar, cocoa powder, salt, and vanilla. Mix until slightly combined, then add 1/2 cup of the coffee.

Whip until the icing is the desired consistency. If the icing is overly thick, add 1/4 cup more coffee. It should be very light and fluffy.

Ice the cooled brownies, spreading the icing on thick. Refrigerate until the icing is firm, then slice the brownies into squares.

Oreo Cheesecake Cupcakes

Yesterday was a VERY special person's Birthday. This person loves food, friends, trashy VH1 reality TV shows, drinks, cooking, True Blood, Olsen Twin movies, Chelsea Handler, shopping, shoes and most of all: cheese. Have you guessed who it is, yet? My lovely, but absent, co-blogger Spice!

Seriously, this girl loves cheese. So for her Birthday, to thank her for being born the awesome person she is, I made her Macaroni and Cheese and Oreo Cheesecake Cupcakes. The macaroni and cheese was heavenly, but this post is about the Cheesecake. =)

Spice didn't want a whole cheesecake that she had to eat, so she asked for individual cheesecake cupcakes. This recipe, however, made 30. So we now have a plethora of these guys taking over our fridge! AHHH! Cheesecake invasion!

Just kidding. I'm sure they will be gone by the time I get home tonight.

Everyone who loves cheesecake thought these were fantastic. And who doesn't like Oreos?! I must say they were very easy to make, too. You ground some Oreo's, put them in the cream cheese and you shake 'em all about!



Or something along those lines.

The only issue I ran into was that the recipe said to keep the cheesecakes in the muffin tins until you serve them. I only have 2 muffin tins, though. I just made sure that they were completely cooled before I removed them and immediately transfered them to the refrigerator and they were fine.



The Oreo at the bottom of each cupcake got a cheer from every eater. I was afraid they would get soggy sitting on the bottom of all that cream cheese, but several days later, the Oreo's were still crunchy!

Oreo Cheesecake Cupcakes from Martha Stewart's Cupcake Book

42 cream-filled sandwich cookies, such as Oreos, 30 left whole, and 12 coarsely chopped
2 pounds cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 large eggs, room temperature, lightly beaten
1 cup sour cream
Pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 275 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Place 1 whole cookie in the bottom of each lined cup.

With an electric mixer on medium high speed, beat cream cheese until smooth, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Gradually add sugar, and beat until combined. Beat in vanilla.

Drizzle in eggs, a bit at a time, beating to combine and scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Beat in sour cream and salt. Stir in chopped cookies by hand.

Divide batter evenly among cookie-lined cups, filling each almost to the top. Bake, rotating pan halfway through, until filling is set, about 22 minutes. Transfer to wire racks to cool completely. Refrigerate at least 4 hours (or up to overnight). Remove from tins just before serving (or take them out after they are cooled like I did).

Vanilla Bean Scones

Before a few months ago, I had not had the pleasure of working with vanilla beans. I was perfectly happy unscrewing the vanilla bottle I bought at the grocery store and using it to my heart's content.

Then, I got it in my head to make my own vanilla extract, so I ordered some vanilla beans online. After my vanilla extract was finished, I used it with such frequency that I had to start a new bottle brewing almost immediately. I couldn't believe how much of a difference homemade vanilla extract made!

So, when I saw The Pioneer Woman's vanilla bean scones, I knew they were in my future. I've made scones before, but the addition of vanilla beans in these really took them above and beyond the call of scone duty. With the glaze on these, they are really almost like a dessert! I ended up glazing them about 3 times because I really wanted them to be coated in the sweet vanilla.

As always, PW has an excellent tutorial on her site, so I wont even try to walk you through it. I don't however, have a pastry cutter, so I used the old trick of using a cheese grater for cutting the cold butter and then working it with my hands. Works like a dream!



Every step in these scones had me pausing to marvel at the little vanilla bean speck throughout...its the small things in life. =)



These scones stayed fresh for a very long time! I had them in a tupperware container and they were still every bit as good a week after I made them!

Vanilla Bean Scones

3 cups All-purpose Flour

⅔ cups Sugar

5 teaspoons Baking Powder

½ teaspoons Salt

2 sticks (1/2 Pound) UNSALTED Butter, Chilled

1 whole Large Egg

¾ cups Heavy Cream (more If Needed)

2 whole Vanilla Beans

3 cups Powdered Sugar, Sifted

½ cups Whole Milk

1 whole Vanilla Bean

Dash Of Salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Split the vanilla beans down the middle lengthwise and scrape out all the vanilla “caviar” inside. Stir caviar into cream. Set aside for 15 minutes.

Sift together flour, 2/3 cup sugar, baking powder, and salt.
Cut cold butter into pats, then use a pastry cutter or two knives to cut the butter into the flour. Keep going until mixture resembles crumbs.

Mix vanilla cream with egg, then combine with flour mixture; stir gently with a fork just until it comes together.

Turn dough onto a floured surface and lightly press it together until it forms a rough rectangle. (Mixture will be pretty crumbly.) Use a rolling pin to roll into a rectangle about 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch thick. Use your hands to help with the forming if necessary.

Use a knife to trim into a symmetrical rectangle, then cut the rectangle into 12 symmetrical squares/rectangles. Next, cut each square/rectangle in half diagonally, to form two triangles.

Transfer to a parchment or baking mat-lined cookie sheet and bake for 18 minutes, removing from the oven just before they start to turn golden. Allow to cool for 15 minutes on the cookie sheet, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.

To make the icing, split one vanilla bean in half lengthwise and scrape out the caviar. Stir caviar into milk; allow to sit for awhile. Mix powdered sugar with the vanilla milk, adding more powdered sugar or milk if necessary to get the consistency the right thickness. Stir or whisk until completely smooth.

One at a time, carefully dunk each cooled scone in the glaze, turning it over if necessary. Transfer to parchment paper or the cooling rack. Allow the glaze to set completely, about an hour.

Marshmallows

I have distinct memories of my childhood, plopped in front of a fire pit with a long stick and a marshmallow on the end of it. I remember adults helping me to roast and then eat the warm, gooey marshmallow. I always felt so comfortable in front of the warm fire, like I belonged in that moment.

I also have distinct memories of being an idiot as a child. My friend, Melissa, and I decided one lazy Saturday that we needed to remake the old "Lemonade Stand" idea. After rummaging through my pantry, we happened upon a bag of marshmallows. Being the creative (but stupid) kids we were, we decided that we could make taffy by working each marshmallow with our fingers and then sell it on the street near my house.

There are several things wrong with this scenario. First, who is going to buy marshmallows? And more specifically, who in their right mind is going to buy marshmallows that have been turned inside out by two grubby third graders?

Second, I lived on a very busy and windy road where SUV's aplenty were known to have gone 30 mph over the speed limit. If we had set up a stand on my street, our business and our bodies would undoubtedly have been run over.

Creative? Yes. Smart? Most certainly not.

Thank goodness common sense prevailed: My dad, upon arriving home and finding wads of mushy marshmallow everywhere nicely directed our attentions elsewhere and our idiot project was forgotten.


As I made these marshmallows, I couldn't help but  think about both a warm campfire, and my 3rd grade idiotic idea of the century. My ideas, apparently, have grown a bit with age. I decided to make s'mores with the marshmallows over a candle flame. This idea actually panned out. My friend, Kali, came over to partake of my hairbrained idea. But it actually worked this time! The roommates, Kali and I all roasted marshmallows from kabob sticks over a candle flame!



These marshmallows were awesome. All of us couldn't believe how much better they are than the store-bought ones. They have a very distinct vanilla flavor, which could be due to the homemade vanilla I've been using. They are also very easy to make if you have a stand mixer. This would be a super fun thing to make for a chocolate fondue pot and a girl's night in!

Marshmallows from One Ordinary Day via Alton Brown

3 packages unflavored gelatin
1 cup ice cold water, divided
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
nonstick cooking spray

Place the gelatin into the bowl of a stand mixer, along with 1/2 c. of the cold water.  Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, combine the remaining 1/2 c. water, granulated sugar, corn syrup, and salt.  Place over medium high heat, cover and allow to cook for 3-4 minutes.   Uncover and clip a candy thermometer to the side of the pan.  Continue to cook until mixture reaches 240 degrees, approximately 7-8 minutes.  Once the mixture reaches the correct temperature, immediately remove it from the heat.

Now turn the mixer on low speed with the whisk attachment in place.  While running the mixer, slowly pour the sugar syrup down the side of the bowl into the gelatin mixture.  Once all the syrup has been added, increase the mixer speed to high.  Continue to whip until the mixture becomes very thick and is lukewarm, approximately 12-15 minutes.  Add the vanilla during the last minute of whipping.

While the mixture is whipping, prepare the pan.  Combine the powdered sugar and cornstarch in a small bowl.  Lightly spray a 9×13″ metal baking pan with nonstick cooking spray.  Add the powdered sugar/cornstarch mixture to lightly cover bottom and sides of pan.  Reserve the rest for later.

When ready, pour the marshmallow mixture into the prepared pan, using a spatula that has been lightly sprayed with nonstick cooking spray.  Spread evenly.  Dust the top with enough of the powdered sugar/cornstarch mixture to lightly coat.  Reserve the rest for later.  Allow the marshmallows to sit uncovered for at least 4 hours or up to overnight.

Turn the marshmallows out onto a cutting board and cut into squares using a pizza wheel dusted with the powdered sugar/cornstarch mixture.  Once cut, lightly dust all sides of the marshmallows with the remaining mixture.  Can store in an airtight container for up to 3 weeks.