Making vanilla bean paste at home

Slofoodgroup Team September 16, 2019

Using vanilla bean paste in your kitchen and want to try your hand at making your own?

At Slofoodgroup, we've teamed up with Karlee from KarleesKupcakes to offer you this easy-to-make DIY vanilla bean paste. It uses our grade B Madagascar vanilla beans and is fantastic when used in baked goods.

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Madagascar Vanilla bean paste, OH MY!

Give this simple Madagascar vanilla bean paste recipe a try. We think it is great for in a pinch but also enjoy combining it with vanilla extract and using it in place of water for that extra, over-the-top vanilla flavor that smoothly infuses into your recipes. If you are not a fan of corn syrup, we suggest using other natural thickeners such as arrowroot, corn starch, xanthan gum, or other common emulsifiers.  You can also make this recipe using any of other natural vanilla beans such as Tahitian vanilla from Tahiti, Ugandan vanilla bean , or another.

How to Make Vanilla Bean Paste

Vanilla bean paste recipe:

Yield: makes approximately 3 ounces

Ingredients

• 4 Madagascar Vanilla beans (Planifolia, extract grade)
• 63g water
• 12g corn syrup/glucose
• 70g sugar (split in two)

Procedure

1. Take 4 vanilla beans and chop the ends off and then the remaining beans cut into roughly 1” pieces. Remember to keep any offcuts for making extract later!
2. Place your chopped vanilla beans and half of your sugar into a food processor or spice grinder and process until the beans and sugar are well combined. I found stopping 2-3 times and scraping down the bowl helped move the process along. I mixed for a total of 3-4 mins, but this time may vary depending on your food processor. Set this mixture aside.
3. Place your water, corn syrup/glucose, and remaining sugar into a pot and boil for 1-2 mins and then add in your vanilla sugar mix and boil for another 4-5 mins, stirring occasionally.
4. Take a clean bowl and metal sieve and strain the boiled paste to remove the large vanilla bean chunks. I find using a rubber spatula helps push out any excess paste trapped on the top side of the sieve. Again, don’t forget to save the leftover pods to use later!

Now you should be left with a beautiful dark amber, aromatic vanilla bean paste ready to use in all of your baking recipes and frostings! I store mine in a mason jar and it will keep for up to two years, but mine never lasts more than a month. Vanilla for everyone!