Homemade Vanilla Extract - no alcohol

Hi there,

I've recently come across someone selling some fresh Madagascan Vanilla Beans at a great price and without hesitation ordered some for myself. Got me 10 vanilla beans at the price of RM40. I was so excited to receive the beans and they of were they plump as plump can be and smells absolutely delicious! I wish there are photos that I can show you but it was not during the time that I had this blog.

I started researching and googling on what I can do with these beans and I came across some recipes for Vanilla extract. So I thought I'd give that a try.

Homemade Vanilla Extract - No alcohol
4 vanilla beans - cut lenghtwise
food grade vegetable glycerin
1 glass bottle - 150ml

Directions:
Cut the vanilla beans lenghtwise and if you need to cut it in half to fit into the bottle.
Pour glycerin into the bottle until full
Keep in dark place for 6 weeks shaking once a week.

Voila. Done!

These vanilla tastes great! and they make all my cakes taste all the more special. and all without any preservatives.

Chocolate Coconut Oil Recipe

I've been trying to figure out a way to get my family to get some coconut oil into our diet and chugging that thing down our throats kind of makes me wanna gag so i thought i came up with (what i thought was an original) a brilliant idea whereby I make it into chocolate bites! I mean, our typical local chocolates are made from palm oil right? so, how different could it be if its made from coconut oil? well, nutrition wise, a WORLD of difference.

Who doesn't love chocolates rite? This would TOTALLY work with my kids.

So I went to good ol google to find out more about this idea of mine and ofcourse, there were TONS of recipes online for Chocolate Coconut Oil. I was hardly the inventor of it. But this is my variation of what works for me.

Chocolate Coconut Oil hearts 
1/2 cup Coconut Oil
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tablespoon raw honey
pinch of salt

1 teaspoon homemade vanilla extract (recipe coming!) (storebought is ok too)

Directions:

Mix the coconut oil and cocoa powder. If the coconut oil is liquid (my weather is tropical so coconut oil is always liquid except when kept in the fridge), to be able to mix the honey and coconut oil mixture well, I would cool the oil in my fridge for about 10 minutes first and once its texture is the same as the honey, thats when i mix it up. 

Then, add the salt and vanilla.

Spoon mixture into a chocolate mould. 

Keep in freezer for 15 minutes

When mixture hardens, remove from mould and keep in a glass container in the fridge. 

The chocolate melts easily in this tropical weather so it needs to be taken quickly. 

My daughters love them and so do I! 

I bought my unsweetened cocoa powder from pastry pro. Raw honey from hero TTDI and coconut oil from Cold Storage Mont Kiara.