Vanilla Bean Paste – How To Use It and How Is It Made?

There was a question about how to use vanilla bean paste and how it’s made. The first thing people always say is “That’s so much sugar!” Yes, it is but when I’m using this, I’m making cakes, cookies, sweetened whipped cream . . low calorie/low sugar isn’t a priority at that point. It is a lot of sugar but we’ve cut so far back on the baked goods so I don’t mind the extra sugar on the rare occasions that I use this. When you consider that I may use 1/2 teaspoon of the paste in a whole batch of cookies, I’m just not going to worry about it but for those who have medical issues or feel it’s too much sugar, I understand.

The Recipe:

This is the recipe I used yesterday. I am a huge fan of The Salted Pepper‘s recipes. In fact, for Christmas dinner, we (not me – them) are having her ham recipe and her candied sweet potato recipe. It has meringue on top (instead of marshmallows) so I can eat that.

Up until I saw her recipe for vanilla-bean paste, I had put the vanilla beans in water and heated them, cooled them, heated them, scraped the beans and then made the paste. When I saw The Salted Pepper’s recipe where the beans are cut into pieces and placed in the blender with the remaining ingredients, blended til smooth, then poured into jars . . that made me happy and since I had vanilla beans on hand, I stopped everything and made two batches. See note #5.

The first batch used 4 oz. of beans and made a bit over 4 half pints. The second batch used 6 oz. of beans and made 7 half pints. I had expected 6 half pints and I think the difference is that I had a 6 oz. package of beans that actually weighed about 7.5 oz. I started to pull out 1.5 oz. but figured . . nahh . . I’ll just use them all.

The Cost:

At Amazon, vanilla bean paste starts at about $13 for 4 oz. ($3.25/oz.) and goes up from there.

The cost for me to make this at home is broken down as follows:

• $72 – Mixed Vanilla Beans (see note #1 below)
• $ .93 – Corn syrup (see note #2 below)
• $2.33 – Sugar – 3 cups (see note #3 below)
• $8 – Alcohol (see note #4 below)

Based on my calculations, the cost of this batch, which filled 7 half pint jars, was $83.26, or $11.89 per jar or, $1.46 per oz.

How to Use Vanilla Bean Paste:

Most often I see a 1:1 recommendation – if the recipe calls for 1 tsp. vanilla extract, use 1 tsp. vanilla bean paste. I use a bit less. If the recipe calls for 1 tsp. extract, I’m going to start with about 1/2 tsp. paste. This stuff with the whole bean is pretty potent.

One thing to be aware of – you will see lots of flecks from the seeds but that helps make it all so yummy. I find that the paste makes everything a little darker than does the extract – sometimes it isn’t terribly noticeable but if you want your whipped cream to be snowy white . . it probably will not be if you’re using the paste but, especially when it’s something I’m making for us, I opt for the flavor of the paste and don’t concern myself with the color.

I use the vanilla bean paste in most all baked goods, as well as in yogurt, a couple of sweet salad dressings. We often have cracked barley for breakfast and I cook it like I cook steel cut oats. I love adding just a bit (maybe 1/8 tsp.) of vanilla paste to my bowl. It would be great in oatmeal too.

Storage:

I keep this stored in the jars with the lid with the gasket and the ring and keep it tightly closed. Everything I’ve read says it will keep at least a year without refrigeration. I leave it out on the counter for about a month, then move it to the fridge except for the jar I’m using and I keep it out so it will be easier to stir into barley or cookie dough.

Note #1 – There is a Facebook group called Indri’s Vanilla Bean Group. That’s where I’ve ordered all my beans and have been able to get what I feel is a great price. I’ve had no problems and have placed half a dozen or more orders with them. The batch that produced 7 half pint jars, approximately 1 cup of paste per jar, used 6 oz. of a batch of mixed beans, which I think was $12/ounce. All the beans are Grade A.

Note #2 – I calculated that 1 teaspoon of corn syrup weighs about .25 oz so 6 tsp. weighs 1.50 oz. and the smaller container of corn syrup at Walmart costs .62/oz.

Note #3 – At Aldi here, four pounds of sugar is $3.08. One pound of sugar is about 2 cups. The cost is about .39 per cup and I used 6 cups for the 7 jar batch so the cost is about $2.33.

Note #4 – I used Captain Morgan’s Spiced Rum for this batch and the cost is based on Sam’s Club pricing. I used a bottle we’ve had here for a while and have no idea what I paid and, besides, what matters is what it costs now, right?

Note #5 – Louise (The Salted Pepper lady) uses a Ninja blender and it heats the mixture a bit which helps melt the sugar. I use a Vitamix and put it on the “soup” setting for a few minutes. It also heats on that setting and helped melt the sugar. If you’re using a blender that doesn’t heat, you may have to blend a little longer to get the sugar melted/blended.