I’ll look for it around here and otherwise order it online. Any recommendations? One blog I saw mentioned “beanilla”; any others would be appreciated so I could compare prices among reputable suppliers.

I finally bit the bullet and ordered a double boiler, partly to heat milk prior to making yogurt, but also because I heard you could make dulce de leche in one. I’m hoping to avoid the burning which my Argentine father (or rather, my gringa mother at his direction haha) often endured when making homemade dulce de leche and which I did the last time I tried to follow a recipe similar to yours.

Now that I’ve worked myself up about being able to eat dulce de leche, if I’m forced to wait for the vanilla shipment, I may have to cheat and use the extract anyway just for a small batch. I found some alfajores recipes and don’t know if I can wait! It’s been ~20 yr since I had homemade alfajores (or any really besides the cheapo Terrabusi kind that a friend from D.C. bought at an import store) and watching Arg at the World Cup brings the all the sweet & savory memories flooding back. I wish I could afford to travel to Argentina, but the $1400 going rate for airfare is out of my budget for now.

The vanilla bean is critical in this recipe as it imparts a distinctive flavor that extract would not. I actually order my vanilla beans in bulk online because it is much cheaper than buying one or two beans at a time in the grocery store (btw, my local basic chain store – Pathmark – carries them in the spice aisle). Vanilla beans are expensive because they come mostly from Mexico and South America (unless you live there, you can’t get “local” vanilla beans) where each individual flower (it’s an orchid) is hand pollinated by workers.

1. can I replace the vanilla bean with vanilla extract (studies show people can’t tell the difference in baked goods, but can in ice cream, FWIW).

2. What type of stores can I find vanilla bean in? I’ve done some searches for for local places but can’t find anything on Google. What chains might have it (the highest-end, non-organic grocery store in my area doesn’t carry it). I can find it online, but I don’t really want to buy 5 pods (minimum amount) for >$8 plus shipping, not to mention having something like that being shipped cross country vs. me buying it locally if possible.