Knowledge Base > Fran Costigan - Sweet Symphony: Earth Day Desserts

Sweet Symphony: Earth Day Desserts

Fran Costigan - Sweet Symphony: Earth Day Desserts

This event was on Tuesday, April 16, 2024 at 1:00 pm Pacific, 4:00 pm Eastern

Earth Day on April 22 provides a perfect opportunity to celebrate and advocate for sustainable, plant-based living through the creation of delectable vegan pastries.

In this Live… Read More.

Recorded

Question:

What are tips for buying Vanilla Extract? What additives are ok? Ones that are not? I saw one that had Organic Glycerine? What's that for?

— Rosie AIELLO

Answer:

My preferred vanilla has nothing, but this is halal vanilla, which honestly I didn't know about until Chef Kathy Gold talked about it at the event. And it's a wonderful vanilla, it's a wonderful vanilla company. It's women owned. It's, um, really helping people out in the news in the Pacific communities. So this vanilla is vanilla bean, extra tips in water and alcohol and that's it. And that's what it should be. This is vanilla. This is all I have left, but I decanted it. And you can see that for the most part, my jars are dark and this is twofold, vanilla. So I need less. And this is a larger amount. I like pansies. Spices are one of the spice companies that I like and I was excited that they opened a brick and mortar in Philadelphia. Had actually never been in one before. I was very surprised to learn to see with my own eyes. I went to get some look at their vanilla one day and they add sugar to their vanilla and honestly the, uh, shop clerk. And they know a lot there. Really. She had no idea why. Oh, here we go. So Kathy has answered glucose, sugar helps the steeping processing, commercial extract production. Ha lala has no sugar. Organic singing dog is sugar free. And that's another thank you Kathy for clarifying that. Singing dog is another wonderful vanilla that I use and tend to buy in quantity. So usually sugar is no more than 5%.
Fran Costigan

Fran Costigan

Director of Vegan Pastry

FranCostigan.com