Hey Guys,
Today, we’re gonna talk about the most common flavoring agent that’s used in baking. It can be confusing and tricky to understand the difference between a vanilla pod/bean, vanilla extract and vanilla essence.
There are so so many products available in the market and while baking, it gets very tricky for the person to know whether it’s okay to substitute vanilla paste for essence or pod and vice-versa.
Let’s talk about all these things today!
What is Vanilla Extract?
It is the essence of the whole pod extracted usually in an alcohol base liquid. (vodka / rum)
How to do that?
Buy your vanilla pods, extract the paste and soak it in the alcohol for a couple of months. Strain it and use
This is great option as it’s natural and you know about what you have added in your extract
What is Vanilla Bean/Pod?
Vanilla bean is the most expensive and amazing way of adding vanilla to your products. They dry out easily. When you use vanilla bean in your recipe, your whole kitchen will be so damn fragrant! Oh god!
Once you’re done with your vanilla bean/pod, you can use the remaining part in your sugar container and your sugar will smell of vanilla all the time!
This is the most natural and preferred way of using vanilla!
What is Vanilla Essence?
Vanilla essence is a processed product that’s made using artificial flavors and colors and doesn’t have as strong flavour/fragrance of vanilla as Vanilla Extract or Pod
If I have to rate them in order of usage and expense, it would be like:
- Vanilla Bean/Pod
- Vanilla Extract
- Vanilla Essence
Hope you found this helpful. Please write your query in the box below and I will get back to you asap!:-)
Love
Mehak 🙂