Madagascan Vanilla Bean Honey

Ever since starting this blog a few months ago, I have taken to occasionally checking the stats and traffic. Okay, I lied. I’m completely addicted to monitoring all features of My Fare Foodie – from the referring URLs, to the random Google searches, to the page views by country. I find comfort in knowing that when I see Japan on the list of countries, that at least one of those readers is my friend Kat in Tokyo. Konnichiwa, Kat!

Probably the most interesting statistic to follow is the list of Google word searches that lead people to my blog. Beside the often hilarious misspellings, what I find fascinating is the most frequent search, which happens to be for lavender simple syrup. Every single day I am amazed to see the amount of times that people Google its recipe and then stumble upon my blog. The funniest thing is that I wrote that post in a last minute, half-hearted hurry before I left for vacation and never thought much of it. Go figure.

Since it appears that the Googlers of the world are incredibly curious about infused sweeteners, I’m adding one more to the mix with Madagascan Vanilla Bean Honey. The following recipe is extremely easy to follow and the resulting infused honey tastes great with herbal tea, toast, oatmeal, fruit, and Greek yogurt. I hope that this Madagascan Vanilla Bean Honey attracts just as much attention as lavender simple syrup has, and that potential readers across the globe continue to “bee” curious with their random Google searches.

Madagascan Vanilla Bean Honey

Ingredients

3 Madagascan vanilla beans, found at specialty food stores or here
8 ounces honey
4 ounces water

Method

Split the vanilla beans in half. Using the back of a knife to slide down each half, remove the seeds from the pods.

In a small pot, whisk together the honey, water, and vanilla beans. Bring to boil and then simmer for 15-20 minutes. I added water not only because it prevents the natural sugars in the honey from burning, but also because it aids in stirring and infusing. Through boiling and simmering, the water vaporizes anyway.

Pour into a jar and cool for about 6 hours or overnight until it reaches the viscosity of honey. Don’t worry if the mixture appears very thin at first – it will thicken up after it has completely cooled. The vanilla beans will mostly float up to the top of the surface as it cools, so you can either scoop most of them out or stir them back into the mixture. I think that the honey looks more appealing and interesting with the vanilla beans floating in it, but it is a matter of personal preference. Enjoy!