Following is a wonderful, easy recipe for Vanilla Bean Maple Syrup. It’s a great treat for breakfast and brunch or makes a gourmet gift. (If you can part with it.) Keep in mind it takes two weeks to “cure”, so now’s the perfect time to make a few bottles for holiday gifts!My Mainer grandfather knew a good thing. Most nights after dinner he treated himself to a large bowl of vanilla bean ice cream doused in a river of pure maple syrup. Other nights he poured himself a bowl of maple syrup, slurped it straight up, spoonful by golden spoonful. Like I said, he knew a good thing.

Last spring I tasted Vanilla Bean Maple Syrup for the first time at the Cabot Cheese store near where I was staying in Smuggler’s Notch, Vermont.

I know a good thing too. Vanilla Bean Maple Syrup is out of this world, seriously the best thing I’ve ever tasted. I took a taste from the tiny spoon at the sampling counter. And then another. And yes, another. I had to stop. I knew it was unethical to down an entire sample bottle. I might get arrested and carted off to jail. That day I bought a precious bottle of Butternut Mountain Vanilla Bean Maple Syrup. My boys and I finished it off in mere days.

So I did a little experimenting and I’m SO excited to share this recipe with you! You’re gonna love it. It’s simple to make with guaranteed great results. I gifted it for Christmas last year, birthday gifts too. If you like the syrup flasks I used, here’s the best deal I found ordering in bulk on-line:  Container and Packaging (They sell the screw-on caps separately, don’t forget to buy those too.)

I bought four gallons of pure Vermont maple syrup from Collins Tree Farm and Sugarhouse in Putney, Vermont. Martin and Jean Collins couldn’t have been more accommodating and gracious, gave me excellent service, shipped it straight to my door. I love supporting local family businesses.

Yeah, so I made lots of  Vanilla Bean Maple Syrup last year! Lots of happy campers on Christmas morning…

Print

Vanilla Bean Maple Syrup

Simple recipe, Vanilla Bean Maple Syrup is wonderful on everything from ice-cream to pancakes. But mostly, straight from the spoon. Warning: highly addictive.

Course Vanilla Bean Maple Syrup

Cuisine American

Prep Time 5 minutes minutes

Cook Time 10 minutes minutes

Total Time 15 minutes minutes

Servings 8

Author Allie Taylor

Ingredients

• 8 oz. pure maple syrup
• 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
• 1 vanilla bean pod

Instructions

• Slit the vanilla bean lengthwise.
• Place vanilla bean in a sterilized 8 or 8.5 oz. jar or flask.
• Bring the syrup to a near boil.
• Gently stir in 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste.
• Using a funnel, carefully pour the hot syrup over the vanilla bean into the jar.
• Screw on the cap, then cool.
• Refrigerate for two weeks 'til ready.
• ENJOY!!!
• (Keep refrigerated.)

Notes

I made four gallons of vanilla bean maple syrup. Initially, I refrigerated it for two weeks, then moved it to the chest freezer to pull out individually for Christmas gifts.

Did you know? Maple syrup doesn't freeze solid. (It's the high sugar content.)

I bought excellent quality Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla Beans from Amazon.

And isn’t this the cutest little maple syrup bird house ever?  Eighty-three year old Vermonter Bob Gelineau of Stone Soup Creations created this unique and genuine “Vermont Birdhouse” by using  boards from a 19th century barn. The roof is a sap bucket cover and the perch, a spout used to harvest maple sap in the Vermont Maple sugaring tradition. I recently found this little bird house at a lovely boutique Country on the Common  in Chester, Vermont.

Do let me know if you make this awesome Vanilla Bean Maple Syrup and tell me how you like it!

Related Post: Cheese and Maple Syrup sampling at Sugarbush Farm in Woodstock, VT

The post How to Make Vanilla Bean Maple Syrup appeared first on Through Her Looking Glass.

Entrepreneur of Sorts 10/14 by Allie Taylor

She was an Entrepreneur of Sorts, and told me she planned to attend business school one day.

“So what would you do with a business degree?” I asked.

“Yeah, so that’s the challenge. So I was thinkin’ what a nightmare it would be to get stuck at your desk in an office building with a run in your hose. And how it would like, ruin your entire day.

Nail polish on runs is like so overrated, so outdated. So I was thinking. Wouldn’t it be so awesome……. if office buildings, had like, their own (dramatic pause) vending machines!”

“Don’t they already?” (I was confused.)

“Not for pantyhose they don’t. So you joy ride the elevator to the lobby, buy a new pair on like, coffee break. You got choices: regular, control top, thigh high, knee high, nude to tan…the whole gamut. So like, that’s what I’d do with a business degree. Install pantyhose vending machines in local office buildings. Keep ‘em stocked. Collect the money. Do the marketing, that sort of thing.”

I had to hand it to her. She was creative, intense and thinking outside the box. And even without the degree, she was already an entrepreneur in her own right. She was known around town as “The Cookie Lady”. Her jumbo chocolate chip cookies were the size of buttermilk pancakes. She sold them individually or by the dozen for corporate events. She also donated them to the school bake sale. But what everyone really wanted, probably even the folks at Tollhouse, was her secret recipe. And she guarded it like the Holy Grail.

She was in a philanthropic frame of mind today, having dropped by to share some extra cookies. And now she was captive at my kitchen counter. Surely this would be my lucky day.

I poured glasses of fresh squeezed lemonade and added mint sprigs from the garden. A batch of my own homemade gingersnaps cooled on the rack. She loved my gingersnaps.

“So I’ve always wondered about your cookie recipe,” I began tentatively. “So, let me guess. I bet you put…… butter in them.”

“I don’t know.” (pause) “Maybe I do.” (pause) “Maybe I don’t.”

She stared at me hard sidewise, eyebrows raised.

This wasn’t going quite as I’d hoped, but I persevered.

“So how ‘bout vanilla. Surely you use pure vanilla extract?”

“It’s not like that,” she said. “It’s not just what you put in. It’s what you don’t.”

And the conversation continued in like manner all afternoon. Sadly, I never did “extract” the recipe from her that day. And I probably never will. But she gifted me with something far more valuable, a life lesson.

It’s not just what you say, it’s what you don’t.

It’s not just what you eat, it’s what you don’t.

It’s not just how you spend your money, it’s how you don’t.

It’s not just what you read, it’s what you don’t.

It’s not just how you live, it’s how you don’t.

And in chocolate chip cookie lingo… “It’s not just what you put in, it’s what you don’t.”

In her very own words. It was my lucky day after all, thanks to her.

And since I can’t have hers, here’s the recipe I use: King Arthur Flour Chocolate Chip Cookies

(So yummy, and many thanks to King Arthur and his VT knights and maidens of the Round Table.)

King Arthur Chocolate Chip Cookies

Related post: Nuts About Her

The post Entrepreneur of Sorts appeared first on Through Her Looking Glass.