For an excellent vanilla taste, choose pure vanilla: It may be more expensive, but a little of the good stuff goes a long way toward great flavour. This creamy, pale sunshine-coloured ice cream is delicious on its own, or with added flavours stirred in before the final freezing.
Vanilla seeds add lovely perfumed speckles to this creamy toothsome classic. This pudding stiffens as it cools, so you might want to stir in more milk before serving.
Wickaninnish Inn, on the west coast of Vancouver Island, is the ultimate getaway resort. Chef Jim Garraway and team serve up irresistible breakfast and brunch dishes, including Cinnamon Vanilla French Toast (see "Romancing the Morning," March 2000 issue, page 89). It starts with thick slices of homemade Cinnamon Vanilla Bread. We used egg bread (hallah), but if you have time to make chef Garraway's bread, it's well worth the effort. Here is the recipe, adapted in the Canadian Living Test Kitchen.
Impress any cookie fanatic with this recipe that combines the flavours of raspberry, cream cheese and vanilla perfectly into one tasty treat.
Bourbon-laced apricots make an elegant dessert to serve on their own or over pound or angel cake. Choose firm, barely ripe apricots so they maintain their shape during cooking. A substitute for the vanilla bean is 2 tsp (10 mL) vanilla added to the boiled syrup.
At the inn this irresistible French toast starts with thick slices of Cinnamon Vanilla Bread. Egg bread (challah) is a good substitute. Serve with grilled veal sausage or bacon and top with yogurt.
Get the best of both worlds with these chocolate and vanilla pinwheels. These swirl cookies boast sprinkled edges, making them look like the festive Yule log.
This four-ingredient cookie couldn't be simpler. The vanilla bean gives a lovely hit of flavour without using extract, which is usually not kosher for Passover. The scraped bean pod can be added to a canister of granulated sugar to perfume it for all of your baking.
A velvety pudding studded with vanilla bean seeds is the base for these creamy artisanal pops. Layered with homemade plum purée and a little brandy, they make a treat fit for a summer day. Add any leftover plum mixture to yogurt parfaits or spread it onto toast.
For the tastiest game around, get the kids to churn a can of ice cream inside another ice-filled can by gently kicking and rolling it around. Vanilla beans give the ice cream a real depth of flavour, and the minuscule seeds are attractive.
