English
Romana
I really feel like winter is coming! I remembered today how lovely it is on Christmas eve when everyone is waiting unpatiently to hear the carols, and the whole house smells like freshly baked goods: gingerbread, cookies, cakes, vanilla, lemon. I should stop dreaming and get into action so we could make this amazing vanilla paste.
Ingredients:
12 vanilla pods
90 g white sugar
60 g brown sugar (or more white sugar)
120 g water
1/2 tsp lemon juice
1 pinch of salt
In a heavy duty pot we measure the two sugars, water, salt and lemon juice. The lemon juice really helps when you want to stop crystals from forming. Let it sit in the pot for few minutes to dissolve, especially if your brown sugar is a little lumpy.
Turn on the heat to low, as low as possible and let everything melt slowly, without stirring. Twist the pan from time to time because we don't want the sugar to burn.
Meanwhile cut the vanilla pods in small pieces ( I've cut them in quarters and it was harder to grind) and put them into a high - speed blender.
Back to our syrup now, we want to cook it until the big bubbles had change into very small ones, almost foam like. I think it took me about 20 minutes, but every stove is different, so keep an eye on those bubbles. If you want something that is more runny, you should go for 15 minutes.
Turn off the heat and let it cool for 30 seconds to 1 minute because it's extremely hot. Pour into the blender carefully, put the lid on and start mixing on high speed until you no longer see large pieces of vanilla. You can stop the blender for 5-10 minute and repeat the process if it's taking too long.
Pour everything into a sterilized jar, seal tight and let it come to room temperature before storing in the fridge.
There's the wonder, I must say my house smelled amazing that day! It was like natural deodorant!
