Vanilla Honey

What is vanilla honey?

If you can’t tell, I made vanilla honey. Oh, this stuff is just the BEST!

I cannot wait to share this with you! I made this a week ago and I don’t know why I waited this long to share it! I think it’s because I didn’t get around to taking pictures that day, and by the time I wanted to..it was all eaten! My mom and sister LOVE vanilla and honey, so this quickly turned into their favorite.

Vanilla honey is simply honey infused with vanilla seeds and the pod. It is ok to eat the little seeds but please don’t eat the pod…Ha! That would be a little crunchy!

Vanilla honey nutrition:

Raw honey is a super food. It contains raw enzymes because it is not heated. These enzymes are needed to digest the sugars in your body. Raw local honey is also a amazing remedy for allergies, sore throats, fatigue, anxiousness, coughs, burns, and the list goes on! Even better, raw honey is GAPS friendly! The vanilla beans are packed with the b-complex vitamins. B-vitmains help relate you metabolism and nervous system. It also contains small amounts of trace minerals. I think vanilla and honey were destined to be together!

Where did I get my vanilla beans?

The recipe can’t get much easier. The hardest part is finding good quality vanilla beans for a decent price. Pure vanilla extract is quite expensive at the store and fresh vanilla beans go along way, so I think this is the way to go. I am planning on making vanilla extract in the future too! I got 54 Vanilla Beans through amazon for $27.69 (free shipping with a prime account). That is about $0.50 a bean!

I took a lot of pictures to make it easy for you to follow. I love the look of pure tiny vanilla pod seeds, they are so delicate. Have fun using the vanilla honey in anything you would normally put honey and vanilla in! Yum!

How to store vanilla beans

After I opened mine, I put them in a plastic bag in the freezer to keep them fresh. I had a few start to mold when I kept them in the cabinet. oops! That is because the kind I got are not dried.  Just deforest them in the fridge before you use one.

The “vanilla honey song”

I think its so good that it deserves a song… oh I ♥ vanilla honey, oh yes I do, yes it do. Vanilla honey is the best, it is above all the rest..oh ♥ vanilla honey 🙂

 

INGREDIENTS:

1 pint of raw honey (2 cups) <— local is best!

1 vanilla bean <— This is the brand I choose.

 

DIRECTIONS:

Here are my 54 vanilla beans. 

A healthy vanilla bean should be plump, slightly soft and have a strong vanilla scent!

1. Cut open 1 vanilla bean. You will have to push firm to open the skin, but not too firm that you cut the whole thing in half!

2. Peel away the sides of the vanilla bean with your knife and fingers.

Take a closer look at those gorgeous vanilla seeds. They are packed with flavor and B-vitamins!

3. Scrape out the vanilla bean seeds with your knife. Don’t worry if you can’t get all of them out, because you are putting the whole pod in the honey jar anyways.

I got my pod all hollowed out.

I love this picture!

4. Set your scraped vanilla pod seeds off to the side. I got about 1/2 a tsp out of 1 plump vanilla bean.

5. Chop or cut (with kitchen scissors) your hollowed vanilla bean into thirds.

Hehe! Sorry about my messy fingers. The vanilla seeds got all over and into my nails 🙂

6. Drop your hollowed chopped vanilla pods into your honey jar. I used and old (pint size) honey jar for this recipe.

7. Pour 2 cups of honey into your honey jar.

8. Carefully drop your pile of vanilla bean seeds into your jar filled with honey.

 The honey looks so gourmet, because you can see the little seeds suspend in the honey. mmm.

9. Stir, stir, stir. I stir my honey and vanilla with a kabob stick. I use an up and down motion because the seeds like to float to the top.

10. To get maximum flavor, infuse your honey in the sunlight for 1-2 weeks. After 1 week, the flavor and scent will be much stronger. When the vanilla flavor is strong enough for your taste, put it back where you usually keep the honey. It will keep just as long as a jar of regular honey will.

*Before using, stir because the vanilla pod seeds tend to migrate towards the top.

11. Use  vanilla honey in anything you would normally use honey and vanilla in. Get creative! We put ours in…

• raw milk kefir
• coconut butter
• coconut milk ice-cream
• GAPS pancakes
• coconut milk yogurt
• homemade coconut milk
• GAPS chocolate vanilla cookies
• GAPS chocolate drops
• GAPS chocolate pudding
• Tea lattes!
• You could even put it in kombucha to flavor it.

 

 

~Stay Gutsy, Caroline

 

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