When life gives you lemons, make lemonade

But when life gives you vanilla beans....

Whilst visiting Malaucene Market earlier this week we stumbled across a stall selling a mountain of vanilla beans. They were divided into première (1st) and deuxième (2nd) classes but they were all so cheap in comparison to what we pay for them in Australia and they were beautiful, fresh and fragrant.

As I am not yet totally familiar with what the kitchen in my rental house is equipped with, but dying to get in there and do some baking, I decided on an easy but delicious Vanilla Seed Cookie. For those of you that have tried my Triple Choc Chip Cookie recipe that freezes really well, this is a similar recipe - make a huge batch of dough and roll it into logs, wrap it, freeze it and you have fresh baked cookies just minutes away whenever the need presents itself! (Bel, I know you will love this one too!)

VANILLA SEED COOKIES

 Ingredients:

2 x vanilla beans - split and seeds removed

250g butter - softened

1 cup caster sugar

1 egg

2 1/2 cups plain flour

 Method:

1. Combine vanilla bean seeds with butter and caster sugar beat till light and fluffy

2. Add egg, continue to beat till well combined

3. Sift in flour, stir to combine

4. To cook immediately - place small spoonfuls onto a lined baking sheet, (well spaced as they will spread) - bake for about 12 mins in a pre heated 180 degrees oven

5. If not using all of mixture immediately - roll into logs (about 20cm long) in baking paper, wrap in cling wrap and place in freezer. Will keep in freezer for about 3 months (as if it would ever last that long!) - when you want to use it, take it out of freezer, slice into about 1cm slices and cook as above - will take a couple of more minutes if cooking from frozen but you will get the same yummy taste!