Home › The Waldorf Kitchen › Vanilla Drops

Vanilla Drops

Cut up as fine as possible two vanilla beans; place them in a mortar with a little sugar and pound them to a powder. Sift this through a fine sieve, and mix with it one pound of coarsely sifted sugar. Put this in a basin and add gradually, stirring with a spoon, sufficient water to make the paste of such a thickness that it will fall from a spoon and none of it remain sticking to it. Turn the paste into a liquid sugar-pan, place it on the stove, and stir well with a spatula until the sugar is dissolved and makes a slight noise. When on the point of boiling, remove the pan and work well with a spatula until when dropped the paste will retain its former shape and not spread too much. With the pan in the left hand and a piece of wire in the right, let the drops fall on a smooth tin or cartridge paper; harden then in a hot closet for two or three hours, remove from the tin or paper and pack them away for use. Vanilla beans are used in preference to the essence, as the latter is apt to make the paste greasy.