Vanilla Powder, who knew?

good morning y'all, it's  another  balmy nippy  morning in my neck of the woods coming in at 0* at 7am.           in case I haven't told y'all yet, I'm so over it!!           hahaha       oh, I guess I've mentioned a time or 20 since Alaska decided to move to TN.        hahaha              I'm cashing in my winter card for my spring card.            hahaha             ready to move on.            but the good news is, we are supposed to warm up with a lot of rain.           that will at least get rid of the salt from the roads.            we are so ready to get back into walking.            I'm hoping we can walk between the rain drops.           hahaha

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I got to thinking about something that I had done back in august of 2023 and thought it would be a good project to share, since I'm getting ready to do this again in a little while.           this will be a good refresher course for me and hopefully give y'all some fresh ideas too.          think outside the box with everything we do.          when we do that, we can come up with some amazing things.

I love vanilla, real vanilla extract and flavoring.           not the stuff they use to scent candles with.        a short story: my husband and I was out just driving and seeing interesting things and stopping and going in.          there was a huge store on the outskirts of a larger town where we used to live and we stopped and went it.     they had a lot of christmas stuff year around.         and I forgot to mention that this was just a family owned and operated store.         it was fun to browse.            we stopped and went in one saturday afternoon and they had just gotten a new display of vanilla candles and it was right in the front door area and the fake vanilla flavor was so strong, and I don't know what else was in it             but it was so strong that it just hit my face like a wet blanket.           had it not been for my husband, I would have hit the floor like a rock!!!         he had me by the arm and got me back outside about as quickly as that happened and we never went back.           so I can't do imitation vanilla at all.            even smelling imitation vanilla in desserts, I can't do it.       

I have to keep real vanilla on hand at all times.            last summer I got to thinking about vanilla beans.          I couldn't find any info on anyone dehydrating vanilla beans.           I did find that "grade a" vanilla beans are a lot more oilier that "grade b" vanilla beans.        those are the preferred beans for making vanilla extract with liquor.          but in all honesty, I had no idea that vanilla beans were oily, but learning that info helped me realize that "grade b" is the grade I needed for what I wanted to do.       

so I set out and ordered my vanilla beans from amazon.             there are a lot places to get vanilla beans from, so you can get yours where you wish to get them.          I need to get some that was affordable and had a good reputation on amazon.          I can't remember exactly where these came from, but when I need more, it's in my amazon history and I can find them that way.

this was a bag of 25 or 26 vanilla beans, vacuum sealed.        they were about 6 inches long.          and they smelled so good.

this is a tray of my weston dehydrator.          as I took them from the bag, I had a paper towel and I wiped each bean down real good, just to get some of the oils thats on them, off.          oils on the dehydrator can and more than likely will, go rancid.          so I wiped each bean real good.           I wish I had taken a pic of the paper towel that I used because it was amazing to see the oils that came from these beans, being grade b beans.          during the dehydrating process, I would keep a paper towel close by and I would check on my vanilla beans and wipe them down again.          I probably wiped them a half dozen times during the dehydrating process.           I spent way more time with the vanilla beans than I ever have spent witth any other product that I've dehydrated.           but it was worth it get the finished product.

they are off the dehydrator and ready to be put in my dedicated mr coffee, coffee grinder.            I don't grind coffee, but I do grind herbs and spices, so this is my herb and spice grinder, now vanilla bean grinder.    hahaha            I broke each bean into smaller pieces and you can them on the paper plate.          and as I was putting the pieces in the grinder, I broke them even more.           

my motto for dehydrating is "cracker crisp, rock hard, and bone dry".           these were cracker crisp, breaking like a crispy cracker.          if they don't snap when you bend it, it will gum up and probably mold when you put it in a container.          but you won't get a good grind.            so if you try this, just make sure you get them crispy.            and my temperature was 110* as per my standard temperature these days.          I know it took more than 24 hours, but I don't remember how much more it took.

 

as you can in these 2 pictures, I got a really great grind on my vanilla beans.            I used my brush that I keep in the kitchen to clean my grinder with and you can see the bristles are a little oily.         I wouldn't want to even try dehydrating grade a vanilla beans, seeing how oily these were once I got them done.           but I did get a good grind on them.            I even went searching for grade c vanilla beans and apparently they don't have that grade, just a and b.        

I really wish there was such a thing as smell-a-vision.            hahaha, you would love the smell of this if there was such a thing.          the smell truly is incredible.            

this little jar is a 4 oz jar and that's how much these ground up vanilla beans made.           I have used it every day since I made it and I still have about half of it left.          I have these measuring spoons that have measurements smaller than regular spoon measurements and that's what I use.           the smallest one is a "nib".           and that's what I use everyday.            a nib of vanilla bean powder in my breakfast bowl each morning and it gives a wonderful touch of vanilla.

so I have another vac bag of vanilla beans and will dehydrate them a little later on.           I'll keep a bag handy at all times just to dehydrate when I start running low on my vanilla powder.          it will be interesting to see how much longer this little jar will last before I have to dehydrate the other bag of vanilla beans.           I recently came up with a recipe for "instant dry egg nog mix" and I've been using a half of a teaspoon in the mix, so it's going down a little quicker than it would if I was just using in my breakfast bowls.     

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I guess that's about all I have today.            I hope you enjoyed this adventure into making dehydrated  vanilla bean powder.           I enjoyed making it and I also enjoyed sharing it with y'all.    

I hope and pray that we all remember to keep God first place in all we do today.          if we do, it'll be a good day.           blessings of warmth, grace and mercy be upon us all today and every day.           hugs and love, patty