Personally,I realize it might be a little strange to see a food product on PW Home and Garden.However in the wake of weeks,I am going to be posting holiday gift ideas that fall under any number of categories, including cooking, food, and wine. Watch for cookbook recommendation, kitchen gadgets, and cooking tools–they often make the best gifts! (As a matter of fact, this jar was a gift to me. I cherish it.)
Today I have to sing the praises of this blessed product by Nielsen-Massey. It’s pure vanilla bean paste, which is exactly as it sounds: a pourable paste chock full of pure vanilla bean caviar. It’s to be used in place of the caviar you’d scrape out of vanilla beans, which is typically added to things like custards, sauces, ice creams, etc. I’ve taken to using it, though, in certain cookie recipes—sugar cookies, for instance—where the visible vanilla beans suddenly turn them into something special. I’ve been using this stuff for awhile, and am hard pressed to detect any difference whatsoever between this and the caviar that’s scraped directly out of the bean. If there’s a limitation to this stuff…well, I haven’t found it yet. And the conversion is easy: 1 tablespoon of paste equals the caviar of 1 vanilla bean. Easy!
For anyone in your life that loves to cook or bake, this would make a fantastic stocking stuffer. It can be found at any number of cooking/gourmet stores, or you can find it on Amazon:
Nielsen-Massey Pure Vanilla Bean Paste
The above size (4 ounces) lasts quite awhile (unless you make custard every day!) but if you’re looking for more volume (and more impact for your gift) they also make a 32 ounce size:
Vanilla Bean Paste – 32 ounces
More gift ideas coming this week! Shopping season is upon us.
