— Rena Takhtalian

So this is one of my vanilla extracts. There are many and vanilla extract should really just be vanilla beans and some alcohol. Sometimes they have sugar added. I try not to, I avoid those. This is, this is vanilla bean paste and vanilla bean paste has this is going to give your product the, um, the specs as if you were using a vanilla bean, but it's thick, it's thicker and it always has some kind of gum in it. They're a little, it's a little bit sweeter and that's an option. This is, I have two of them. This is a burlap and barrel wild pomp. This is from the Peruvian Amazon. This is vanilla bean powder and this is halal pure vanilla bean powder, which is another excellent brand, women-owned brand from New Zealand. So vanilla, I believe that using, I like to use vanilla extract in something that's going to be baked. I like to use the paste or a scraped vanilla bean. And um, that's the most luxurious really to, you know, if you're doing a cream or a sauce, I prefer to use that. And the powder is a great option when you're making something where you just don't want to add any liquid to it. So those are your vanillas of course. Start with a good vanilla. Again, no sugar added vanilla if you're using a scrape vanilla bean and we call the inside some, you know, the, the caviar really 'cause that's what it is. Don't throw away your vanilla beans. They are expensive and they still have a lot of aroma. So you can use them to infuse a liquid or a custard or dry them and grind them with sugar to make vanilla sugar. I use them pretty much one to one to start. Sometimes I will add even a little bit of vanilla bean in with vanilla extract. So it will depend. And also remember that vanilla extract comes in strengths one fold, twofold, threefold. The higher the number, the stronger it is. So those are the differences.

Vanilla with Kathy Gold