(NEWSnet) - If you were with us last time around on Jill of All Trades, you learned how to make your own vanilla extract. 

For this installment, NEWSnet's Jill Washburn shows us how to take that idea a step further by making vanilla bean paste. 

If you’ve never heard of that before, it is a form of vanilla extract with tiny bits of the vanilla bean in it.  It gives the vanilla flavor an extra punch.

Here’s what you’ll need:

  • 30 Vanilla Beans
  • 6 Tbsp. Vanilla Extract (Jill used her own homemade extract)
  • 1 2/3 cups Agave Nectar

First, Jill starts with vanilla beans. She says you can start with the beans right out of the package, or you can use beans that you’ve used to make your own vanilla extract, once you’ve used up all the extract. Since Jill hadn’t finished off a bottle of extract yet, she used beans right out of the package. If you’ll recall the extract making-episode, Jill sliced open each bean with a sharp knife, so that the tiny vanilla bean seeds are visible.

Put all of the ingredients into a food processor or blender and process the mixture until the beans are finely ground. Any flecks of vanilla bean should be about the size of finely ground pepper. This may take several minutes depending on your appliance and/or the setting you use for processing it. Jill used a blender which took a little longer to get to the desired consistency.

After processing, put the mixture through a fine mesh screen or strainer over a bowl. Press on the vanilla bean pulp to get as much liquid out as possible. Put the strained paste into a jar, cover tightly, and store it in the refrigerator, where it will keep for about a year.

The pulp that was strained out can be discarded OR you can put that into some fresh vodka and let it sit for at least for months (Jill recommends letting it sit for a year or so). That will become a new batch of vanilla extract.

Makes about 2 cups of Vanilla Bean Paste.

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