How to Extract Vanilla Seeds from a Vanilla Bean

Today, we are offering a kitchen tip on how to extract vanilla seeds from a vanilla bean.  Knowing the technique to get the vanilla seeds out of the vanilla pod is an important step in cooking as quite a few recipes (baking, making ice cream, etc.) require their use.  So if your recipe calls for vanilla seeds, simply check out our Art of the Home tips below to extract the most out of this precious bean!

Art of the Home Tips:

1. With a paring knife, starting at the top of the vanilla bean and slice open in half.  Separate in 2 pieces.
2. Using the back of your knife, scrap the seeds (feels and look like a paste) and you have now thousands of vanilla seeds ready to give a burst of flavor to your desserts, enjoy!

Art of the Home Suggestions:

1. Homemade vanilla sugar: instead of discarding the skin of your vanilla bean, you can substitute it in Art of the Home homemade vanilla sugar recipe.  Of course, this vanilla sugar will not be as strong as if you had used the entire vanilla bean so we don’t recommend using it for baking but it will be just fine to give a vanilla hint to yogurt and tea.
2. Type of vanilla beans: we prefer the vanilla beans from Madagascar (located in “La Réunion”, a French island along the Indian Ocean – used to be called “Île Bourbon”).  They are richer in flavor than other types of vanilla beans.  All summer long, we use them to make our Madagascar vanilla ice cream so we buy our Bourbon Madagascar vanilla beans in bulk - great deal.  They are also available in lower quantities however (Bourbon Madagascar vanilla bean: 7 beans), both options ship for free on Amazon.