Death by Vanilla!

Paradise to Plate has been lucky to have been provided with some stunning Vanilla Bean produce from Fiona at 'Broken Nose Vanilla' in North QLD. I have been researching for days on a way to do these justice......and..........

"Death by Vanilla" was born!

Cinnamon Brioche French Toast, Caremelised Banana, Vanilla Icecream and Vanilla & Bourbon Maple Syrup.

My weapons of choice were, A and B grade Vanilla pods and Vanilla scented Honey.
My first job was the Vanilla Bean Ice cream and I made this a few days in advance. The recipe was adapted from one I found on the Taste Website which is now available for your I- Pad!.

Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

Makes 1 Litre

Ingredients

300ml thick cream

300ml milk

2 vanilla beans, split

6 egg yolks

175g caster sugar

Place the cream and milk in a saucepan. Scrape in the vanilla seeds ( I used and A grade one) and add the bean, too. Bring to the boil, then turn off the heat and set aside for 10 minutes to infuse. Place the egg yolks, sugar and the seeds from another split vanilla bean in the bowl of an electric mixer. Beat until pale and thick. Carefully pour the milk over and slowly beat until blended and then return to a clean saucepan.

Cook over low heat, stirring, for anywhere from five minutes to 25 minutes until it is thick and coats the back of a wooden spoon. You should be able to draw a ribbon in the coating of custard on the spoon and when it stays there it is ready! It is difficult to judge...check out this video!

Once thickened I left the mix to cool in the fridge with the bean still in it to get as much flavour out as possible. Once it was cool I Strained the mix, poured it into my icecream maker and set it churning. I have had both types of icream makers and they both work well...the type that you freeze the container worked great until I dropped it, hence the upgrade to a compresser version. Once it has churned and thickened store in a freezer container and freeze until ready to serve. Mine was lucky to make it to the rest of the dish, so creamy and tasty I had to be very strong not to eat it all before hand!

Bourbon & Vanilla Maple Syrup

Split a Vanilla Bean and in a frypan cover with 2 Tblsp of Bourbon. Heat and Flambe to evaporate the alcahol. Add 1/2 cup of the best maple Syrup you can buy.... meaning pure, not the maufactured rubish, it is more expensive but so much better. Cook until incorporated and then set aside in a jug. I then used the pan with all the yummy dregs to cook my Banana in. Just add some butter and then the sliced bananas and cook until coloured and softening.

I used day old Brioche and sliced it quite thick. Make up a batter as follows;

3 eggs, lightly beaten

1/2 cup milk

1/4 cup cream

1Tblsp of Vanilla scented Honey

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Soak the brioche for a good minute in the rich batter and then fry in hot butter until golden on both sides.
Plate the toast and give them a good dust of icing sugar, top with the Banana and the ice cream and drizzle with the syrup.

I know this sounds rediculously rich and sweet but is was actually quite surprising. Just perfect and a great combination. A special treat for sure but once the ice cream was done the rest was pretty quick and easy.

PS.

Don't throw away those gorgeous Vanilla Beans once you use them. Wash them off and dry them and put them in a jar of castor sugar. The sugar is great for sweet recipes and if you are really stuck for a bean, go ahead and use them, they will be better than most of the esscences we can buy.

I have always wanted to make my own esscence and so used one of the beans split and put in in a cute little bottle and covered it with vodka. I will keep it in a dark cupboard and try it after 6 months....it looks good already and these would make a great gift for your foodie friends!

Posted by Julie-Ann