I have just received a bunch of Madagascar Beans. They are dried and brittle, how can I revive them to be more pliable?  I've read that some  ways is:

Spritz the dired bean with water and wrap in a paper towel and place in the microwave. 

Place in 2 inches of vodka or rum.

What is the best way to revive these dried Madagascar beans.

Would appreciate any input.

Thanks,

do they have much/any vanilla smell to them???

i don't know

maybe they coul still enhance some granulated sugar or use to make vanilla

but i don't know

i used the moist ones for stuff

never had any dry ones until after i harvested  the caviar

ok though i would not heat them much

maybe do a test and try a gentle low temperature steam

if there is sucha thing

high temps are avoided due to changing the flavor

but... ??

The ones I just bought are brittle, too, but I was so happy to find any at all that I bought them anyway. No problem for me since I'm planning to make vanilla extract. I wonder what would happen if you buried them in some moist sugar for a few days - at the very least you'd probably get vanilla sugar and it might even soften the beans. When I say moist sugar, I mean the consistency of wet sand - it doesn't take a lot of water to do this, just a few drops at a time so as not to overdo it.

oh i forgot though

they do mold so easy

water is not a friend to the vanilla pod

i say cut 'em up and drop 'em in the booze for some tasty vanilla

might need to add some fresh ones--maybe maybe not

i made some for the kids for christmas one year

and my son used some of his for a teaspoon of flavor in a mixed adult drink for an open house

my daughter bakes with hers

kinda cool

If the dried beans are to be used for vanilla extract, go right ahead and make it if you are using 40% (80 proof) alcohol because there is plety of water to soften the beans.

If the beans are to be used for baking and you find them difficult to cut, then put them into some vanilla extract and both will improve after a week's contact.

Ah, BakingIrene, leave it to you to come up with the best solution! I think I'll do this with my beans instead of making the extract with vodka. Thanks for the idea!

I'm actually interested in making extract. What gave you the best results for that, BakingIrene?

From my own experience, both rum and vodka worked equally well.  It takes 6 months at room temperature. Of course you can start a new batch every month or two if you use that much vanilla.

I give the whole beans 2 months because the skin of the bean has some essential components of the final extract.

Then I chop the softened beans and put them back into the same liquor to dissolve the resin that surrounds the seeds.  This stage takes some regular shaking as well as the 4 months of soaking.

For one batch, I had an extra final step--I added 2 ounces of sugar to a batch with  beans extracted with 12 ounces of vodka.  The sugar helped to draw the rest of the flavours from the soft skins (they shrivelled up after a month).  The entire product was what I would call a "gold standard" for cold extraction--even if there is sugar added.

Thanks for these tips, BakingIrene. I just started a batch yesterday with the tail end of some commercial extract, some vodka and my beans. I'll follow your method and see what comes up. I'd like to do some extracts for Christmas gifts this year, as well as for my own kitchen, so I'll probably be starting several more batches before long. Once I split the beans open, by the way, I was surprised to find the insides weren't all that dry, but still not the best for scraping. This is something new for me, but I really love vanilla and am fascinated by the process of making extracts.