Vanilla beans - Vanilla flavors will enhance Mexican recipes

Vanilla powder: Vanilla will features in many Mexican dessert recipes and beverage recipes. It is an aromatic spice which will come from a special variety of orchid. Vanilla will be coming in different forms, including beans, extract, flavored sugar and powdered vanilla.

This spice will be used to flavor many types of desserts from the famous Mexican flan to cakes, cookies and even hot chocolate. Vanilla is the second most expensive spice after saffron and it is impossible to recreate the unique aroma and flavor of this magical spice. The word itself comes from the Spanish word "vainilla" which means small sheath. This refers to the pod.

Vanilla Come From:

Three quarters of the vanilla in the world will come from the islands of Reunion and Madagascar, which are in the Indian Ocean. These beans are rich, sweet and smooth. The beans grown in Mexico are darker and fatter. A lot of people claim that Mexican vanilla has a richer and nicer taste than the beans grown in the Indian Ocean islands.

 A third variety is Tahitian vanilla and these pods are very fat and very dark. They are very aromatic, so good for making perfume, but not as flavorful as Mexican or Indian Ocean island vanilla.

Mexican Vanilla:

Real Mexican vanilla is quite rare and therefore it is more expensive. It is in the color of amber and translucent. Be careful not to get duped into buying a synthetic Mexican vanilla. The synthetic product will be either totally clear or really murky, neither of which can be confused with natural Mexican vanilla. The real thing is extracted with alcohol, so the alcohol content should be thirty five percent or more. Some synthetic extracts contain either no alcohol or hardly any.

When you are going to make good Mexican desserts, make sure with real extract. When you cannot get Mexican vanilla, it is fine to use another type but do choose real extract over synthetic extract because they are so different. You can compare it to maple syrup. Real maple syrup is delicious and synthetic maple syrup does not even come close.

Recipe for Mexican Vanilla Almond Cookies:

You can use good quality extract in the following cookie recipe for the best results. These cookies are light, tasty and full of flavor. Serve them with a cup of coffee for a mid-afternoon pick-me-up or after dinner as a dessert.

Products needed:

• 2 cups flour
• 1 cup unsalted almond
• 1 3/4 cups powdered sugar
• 2 sticks butter, chopped
• 1 teaspoon anise seeds
• 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

Method:

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Puree the almonds with the butter in a food processor. Add the vanilla and 3/4 cup of the powdered sugar and keep blending. Add the anise seeds and flour and grind until the mixture is well combined.

Rub flour over your hands and shape the mixture into balls. Arrange them on ungreased cookie sheets, about an inch apart, and bake for about eighteen minutes or until the bottoms are golden brown. Let them cool for about fifteen minutes, and then roll them in the remaining powdered sugar.

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