Tips and Tools Tuesday: Vanilla Beans

I've been baking for quite awhile but I always avoided using real vanilla beans because those little suckers are EXPENSIVE! I used to hate recipes that would call for expensive and exotic ingredients because the whole benefit of cooking and baking at home is to cut the cost down. I didn't like the idea of finding one particular ingredient for just one recipe so I either didn't use the recipe or found a reasonable substitute. Just about everywhere I looked for vanilla beans it was about $7-10 for 2 beans. In my mind they either need to be filled with liquid gold or vanilla extract would just have to be a good enough substitute.

When planning out my sisters wedding cake I decided that I need to splurge and buy vanilla beans for her vanilla raspberry cake layer. While compiling resources and doing extensive research I discovered that Costco has amazing prices on vanilla beans. I was nearly brought to tears as I read the sign. 10 beans for $12. You better believe that I stocked up and that the cashier thought I was absolutely nuts. The best part (aside from the price) about the Costco vanilla beans is that they come in glass tubes (5 in a tube). When you uncork them the smell is absolutely heavenly. They do have expiration dates on them but they can be frozen.

So, the question that is begging to be asked; is it worth it? In my humble opinion - for just a little over a dollar per bean, completely and absolutely 100% yes. I am still pretty stingy with the vanilla beans but always use them when the vanilla flavor is being showcased such as in pastry cream (vanilla custard) and in vanilla cakes. There is such a difference and I really don't think I'll make pastry cream again without using them. To make it even more valuable; vanilla beans can be used in 2 ways. The most common is to split the bean and scrape out the seeds and incorporate that into the recipe. But, if you save the emptied pod you can add it the milk you're going to use for the pastry cream and let it soak. I even take it a step further and leave the pod in while boiling the milk in preparation to make the pastry cream. People also put their emptied pods to their sugar supply to allow the flavor to be soaked into the sugar. Either way, the vanilla bean definitely performs double duty.

For the next tips and tools tuesday I'll post a recipe for pastry cream and provide some awesome ideas for how to use it.