As I've already written about, I have a serious love affair going on with London Fogs. In an effort to try to be somewhat economical, I started making my own at home, rather than buying them from a coffee shop all the time - you can see my recipe here. Vanilla syrup is a crucial part of the London Fog. I figured that out after a few experiments trying to make my own London Fogs at home, then started buying my syrup from a local coffee shop. I didn't like that I had all the other ingredients on hand, so I decided to try my hand at making vanilla syrup. The only problem? Vanilla beans are super expensive.
So, I did some research and I discovered that a cheap place to buy vanilla beans is on ebay. I know, who would have guessed? The once precious beans (that were in the cupboard only to be looked at, never to be used) are now ingredients that I use all the time. The package that I last ordered was 30 beans for $10 Canadian, and they were perfect. I was worried that they were going to be terrible and shrivelled, but they were great. The beans that I ordered weren't as long as the ones that you can buy in the grocery store, but the last ones that I bought in the grocery store came in a glass vial and were 2 beans for $8 Canadian. I think I'll stick with ebay.
So, my recipe:
Homemade Vanilla Syrup
2 (to 2 1/2) cups sugar
1 cup water
3 vanilla beans
Mix sugar and water together, bring to a gentle simmer. In the meantime, cut the beans lengthwise, scrape out the vanilla seeds and add it to the mixture. I also throw in the whole beans after they've been scraped out. And that's it. I let it simmer for a little while (maybe 10 minutes?), being sure to stir it often so that it doesn't burn. It turns a lovely golden colour and makes the house smell delicious. Using a small funnel, I then pour it into a bottle with a stopper. The bottle that I used had about a cup of Pippins cider from Sea Cider Farm and Ciderhouse at the time, so I took one for the team and finished it. I know, that was big of me.
Slicing up the vanilla beans and scraping out the seeds. I actually scrape the seeds out with the back of the knife, then wipe the knife back on to the bean and toss the whole this into the pot.
Simmering away. Notice the burn mark on the spoon - this is not an uncommon occurrence in my house. You can see the clusters of vanilla seeds that were scraped out of the beans, as well as the whole vanilla beans floating in the syrup mixture.
Incidentally, I made my second to last batch of syrup about a week before we left for Christmas vacation. When we came back about two weeks later, the bottle looked like this:
The sugar had crystallized and was covering the sides of the bottle and the vanilla beans that I had stuck in the bottle. There wasn't much left, which is why I had to make a new batch not long after the last one. I think that sticking the vanilla beans directly in the bottle just gave the sugar more surface area to crystallize, so it went a little faster. However, it had a lovely vanilla taste and the crystals were beautiful.
It' so satisfying to make my own drinks every morning, knowing that the cost of making my own at home is a fraction of the cost of buying one in a coffee shop (My estimate per cup - about 30 cents, using premium earl grey tea). I also love that I now have delicious vanilla syrup at home that I can use in other ways - I'm sure it would be delicious poured over ice cream or in a mixed drink.
