My Uncle Andrew was recently visiting us from Norman, Oklahoma. He is a purist and is super passionate about everything he does, so as a gift, he gave me some fresh vanilla beans . He purchased these long, sleek, brown, beans from a local spice store. They came in pretty glass bottles with brown labels. One bottle was from Madagascar and the other was from Mexico. We decided to bake some of our favorite cookies, and instead of using the regular, bottled vanilla extract, we used the vanilla from inside the beans. We carefully sliced opened the long bean and there were multiple, black spots (seeds) inside, waiting to be scraped out. We had to look up the correct equivalent amount to use since our recipe called for vanilla extract. We found different information, but the one we decided to go with, said to use a half a vanilla bean for every teaspoon of vanilla extract. We made the cookies and they turned out wonderful. You could really smell and taste the delicious vanilla. If you do use fresh vanilla, be sure not to throw the skins out because they are very useful! You can use them to flavor your coffee or french toast. I highly encourage you to stop by your local spice store and try some fresh vanilla bean!
