MY PANTRY - VANILLA FLAVORS

Three vanilla flavors

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In 1891 August Oetker, a young pharmacist from Bielefeld, Germany, came up with the formula for a new kind of baking powder. 

Whereas the original baking powder, invented 35 years earlier, could not be stored, and, worse, had an odd aftertaste, the new "Backin" had a much longer shelf life and tasted neutral.

Dr. Oetker, not resting on his pharmaceutical laurels, was also a marketing genius. Instead of filling his mixture in tin cans, or card board boxes, like everybody else, he sold it in small packets - not to professional bakers, but to housewives - a portion just enough for 500 g flour, or one cake!

Making it much more convenient for mothers to bake for their families, he also found new ways to advertize. With recipes printed on the packets, and in his newspaper ads, he tempted them to bake even more - of course with his practical "Backin".

Being so successful with baking powder, the smart pharmacist created a whole line of baking products, packaging every item in small sachets or tiny glass tubes. No need for measuring, or eyeballing, but ready to use in most regular sized cakes or other baked goods.

Because of this clever marketing strategy, planned in the back room of a pharmacy in Bielefeld, German housewives are used to buy vanilla aroma in 1-portion packets, mixed with sugar for easier distribution. Vanilla extract, like in the US, is rarely to find in German baking aisles.

Dr. Oetker's original vanilla flavor - the one that I, and most Germans, grew up with - is an artificial aroma. Meanwhile, you can get a natural flavor, too: "Bourbon-Vanille".

In specialty stores for cooks, like my favorite "Rooster Brother" in Ellsworth, you can also buy vanilla bean paste. This tastes like scraped vanilla beans, but it is rather expensive, and cannot be stored for long - it gets hard.

But why buy vanilla extract or sugar, when both is very easy to make!


HOMEMADE VANILLA EXTRACT (adapted from "Cook's Illustrated")

1 vanilla bean
6 oz/180 ml hot vodka (like Smirnoff - it doesn't have to be an expensive brand)

Split vanilla bean lengthwise and scrape it. Place empty pod and its contents in empty jam glass or another 1-cup container with lid. Pour hot vodka over vanilla, and let it cool to room temperature, then close the lid.

Let mixture stand for 1 week at room temperature, shaking the glass gently every day. 

Strain the vanilla extract (optional), and store it in a dark, cool place. It will keep indefinitely.


HOMEMADE VANILLA SUGAR (VANILLEZUCKER)

You don't even have to buy vanilla beans extra for that purpose. Whenever you use a vanilla bean, place the scraped pod into an empty jam glass, or another 1-cup container with lid, and fill it up with sugar.

After a few days the sugar will be infused with vanilla aroma. This will keep indefinitely, you can always add more vanilla beans and more sugar.


VANILLA EQUIVALENTS:

1 tsp vanilla extract         =      1 packet/2 tsp/8 g vanilla sugar ("Vanillezucker")                                                                       =     1 vanilla bean (2-inch/5 cm)
1 tsp. vanilla extract        =     1 tsp vanilla bean paste


STORING VANILLA 

Vanilla extract and vanilla sugar - homemade or store bought - can keep forever, stored in a cool, dark place.

Vanilla bean paste, stored in a cool and dark place, keeps several months, but gets hard eventually.

"Cook's Illustrated" tested different ways to how to store vanilla beans - they keep best if they are wrapped in plastic foil, and placed in a freezer bag in the vegetable drawer of the fridge (1 month or longer).


VANILLA BEAN RESCUE:

Dry and hard vanilla beans are very difficult to scrape. They can be rescued by placing them in a small bowl, covering them with whipping cream or half-and-half, and microwaving them for 1 - 2 minutes.

After this hot spa treatment, the pod are plump and pliable again, and can be easily scraped. And you have some nice, vanilla flavored cream as additional benefit, too. (This tip came from one of "Cook's Illustrated" readers.)

RHUBARB VANILLA CREAM TART

Rhubarb Vanilla Cream Tart - a marriage of tart and sweet, with Bourbon vanilla

I always liked rhubarb. It grew abundantly in our garden, and my sister, my two cousins, and I were admonished not to eat it raw - especially not the leaves - in the same way we were told not to bite into the pods of golden chain, monkshood, lily-of-the-valley or foxglove. OR ELSE!

My mother usually cooked rhubarb for compote, to eat with vanilla pudding or quark, but sometimes we bought rhubarb streusel cake, or rhubarb meringue torte from the Konditorei.

The rhubarb plants in our garden in Bar Harbor were hardly visible when we moved into our house. Suffering from years of living in the shadows, malnourishment and crowded out by weeds, they had shrunk to puny proportions, with spindly stems too anorectic to harvest.

My in-laws planted rhubarb in what was, in those days, a sunny patch along the fence, but long since overshadowed by maples and cedars. I didn't even think they were worth the effort of digging and planting them somewhere else, but, at least, I freed them from their suffocating neighbors, and graciously fed them some compost.

In the meantime, some trees have come down, and more light is now reaching these poor plants. They seem to like my grudging care, and look much more vigorous this year (even growing gamely back after some people - I will not name names - dumped a garbage can right on their patch).

Recovering rhubarbs

Since they are still on the way to recovery, I bought the fat, healthy rhubarb stems for this wonderful cake at Hannaford's.

RHUBARB VANILLA CREAM TART

Crust
110 g/3.9 oz all-purpose flour
30 g/1 oz whole wheat pastry flour (or more all-purpose flour)
80 g/2.8 oz cornstarch
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1/4 tsp baking powder
80 g/2.8 oz powdered sugar, sifted
1 pinch salt
100 g/7 tbsp butter, softened

Rhubarb Compote
400 g/14.1 oz rhubarb, peeled and cut in 2 cm chunks
50 g/1.8 oz sugar
60 ml/ 1/4 cup orange juice (or wine)
4 tsp cornstarch
1 tbsp cold water (or orange liqueur)

Vanilla cream
500 ml/16.9 oz heavy cream
80 g/2.8 oz sugar
1/2 vanilla bean
1 envelope unflavored gelatin powder (or 4 white gelatin leaves)
100 g/3.5 oz mascarpone cheese


1. For the crust: using a wooden spoon, mash butter in a bowl, and mix with powdered sugar. Add egg, and mix until completely blended.

2. In second bowl, sift together flour, starch, baking powder and salt. Add to bowl with wet ingredients. Work dough into ball, and then press into a flat disk on plastic wrap. Wrap and refrigerate dough for 30 minutes.

3.  For the rhubarb compote: in sauce pan over medium heat, let sugar caramelize until light brown. Add orange juice (or wine), then rhubarb, and cook for 5 minutes, or until rhubarb is soft and sugar dissolved. In small bowl, dissolve starch in 1 tbsp. cold water (or liqueur). Stir into rhubarb, and let cool.

4. Cut parchment paper to a round, using a 10-inch/26 cm tart form as template (use later with pie weights.)

5. On lightly floured surface, roll out dough to a 11-inch/28 cm round. Place into tart form, pushing dough to sides. Trim excess with knife. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

6. Preheat oven to 400ºF/200ºC. Adjust rack to second lowest position.

7. Cover dough with paper round, then with pie weights (or dried beans.) Bake for 15 minutes, remove pie weights and paper. Continue baking for another 10 minutes. Let tart crust cool (in pan) on wire rack.

8. For the vanilla cream, scrape vanilla bean. Add empty pod and heavy cream to sauce pan and cook until cream is reduced by 1/5th to 14 oz/400 ml. Remove vanilla pod.

9. Mix powdered gelatin with sugar. Stir with vanilla seeds into hot cream, until dissolved (or soak gelatin leaves in cold water for 10 minutes, squeeze, and stir into hot cream until dissolved.)

10. Let cool for 5 minutes, then stir in mascarpone. Leave to cool, until cream begins to set.

11. Spoon rhubarb compote evenly over baked crust. Chill for 30 minutes. Spread vanilla cream evenly over rhubarb. Refrigerate tart for several hours, until cream has set.

I adapted this recipe from essen-und-trinken.de: "Rhabarber-Vanillecreme-Tarte".