Learn the difference between vanilla beans, extract, and paste, plus suitable substitutions for each.
No doubt you’ve heard the word “vanilla” used to describe all things bland and boring.
This is a grave injustice!
Any baker will tell you that this ingredient is an ace in the holejust a few drops can transform.
Even the scent can carry you off to faraway times and places.
But using vanilla can also be confusing, since it comes in many different forms.
Beans, paste, extractthey all describe vanilla.
These pods carry pinpoint-sized black seeds that contain the chemical vanillin.
Vanillin is the source of the floral flavor that we know as vanilla.
Interestingly, most of the world’s vanilla comes from Madagascar.
Vanilla bean is also a flavor.
Vanilla bean can be used in a truly wide array of desserts, including semifreddo.
Gently scrape out the seeds from the top down to the other end.
Save the empty pod to soak in your favorite spirit or to make your own vanilla extract.
The kind of vanilla extract that uses these seeds is called “pure vanilla extract.”
This is the familiar, potent liquid from the tiny brown bottle with a heavenly scent.
Vanilla extract is made by soaking cured vanilla pods in a mixture of alcohol and water.
The alcohol helps to fully extract flavor.
But like vanilla beans themselves, vanilla extract tends to be expensive.
That’s because vodka has a neutral flavor so it won’t mask that pure vanilla flavor.
Imitation Vanilla vs. Food scientists accomplish this by creating synthetic vanillinthe same chemical that gives natural vanilla its flavor.
More than 90 percent of vanilla extracts on the market are artificial.
They tend to cost far less than pure vanilla extract.
The good news is that artificial vanilla extract does a wonderful job of subbing for the real thing.
If you’re baking, imitation vanilla extract is a great substitute for pure vanilla extract.
Vanilla Paste vs.
Extract
In general, it’s possible for you to use vanilla extract and vanilla bean paste interchangeably.
Vanilla paste has an eye-opening intensity, and it’s flecked with specks of vanilla bean.
What Is Vanilla Powder?
Vanilla powder is vanilla beans ground into a flour.
This powder is often mixed with sugar, but the best kind isn’t.
Like vanilla paste, vanilla powder packs an aromatic wallop.
It can be used in place of extract.
French Vanilla vs.
Vanilla
French vanilla is a flavor, not an ingredient.
It’s made to resemble an old style of ice cream that used eggs.
Confusingly, though, French vanilla now also appears as an ingredientas an extract.
While this extract may have a place, don’t use it as a substitute for the others.
