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Baking and preparing sweet treats has never been more exciting than with the use of vanilla bean pastes. It is a combination of vanilla pods and vanilla extract, producing a sweet and sticky ingredient. Bakers and chefs choose vanilla bean paste as it removes the need to scrape vanilla beans in order to flavour confections, cakes, ice creams, cookies, etc. In other words, you can elevate your desserts and snacks quickly, easily, and deliciously.

What Makes Vanilla Bean Paste a Better Option?

If the goal is to make vanilla the star of the dish, use this paste. High-quality pastes are usually made from a natural thickener, vanilla extracts and real seeds. The thickener allows for the adjustment of consistency.

The appearance of the vanilla paste itself with its bean specks add to the gourmet feel and elegance of pastry cream, crème brûlée, cupcakes, French vanilla ice cream, milkshakes, and other classic treats. You may use these beans to produce the same effect, but it is more costly, and the preparation takes longer. If you want to save expense and time in making desserts and still get the appearance of gourmet, then bean paste is what you are looking for.

When choosing the paste as an alternative for the extract, utilise the teaspoon-for-teaspoon ratio. It will add a slightly more potent taste and visual style. While there is a lot going on with the paste, in terms of ingredients, know that it typically has a shorter lifespan than the extract. Usually, a container of vanilla paste has a three-year suggested time of usage, especially if you make cakes and cookies regularly.

When to Use Vanilla Bean Paste

The best time to use depends on your recipe. Both the paste and the extract can have the same quality of beans, but because of bean specks and consistency in the paste, there is a slight difference in applications.

In general, both the paste and the extract deserve a spot in the kitchen drawers of bakers, regardless of the dessert. Remember, vanilla bean paste can change the texture of the beverage, batter, frosting, etc., you make due to its thicker characteristic.

For this, the paste is the ideal option if you aim for an attractive, appealing creamier vanilla dessert. Use the paste if you want to see those pretty black specks in your recipes and come with a rich vanilla flavour.

Vanilla bean paste is also perfect for delicate recipes such as sponge cakes. Certain recipes require thicker vanilla that does not sink to the bottom. The soft texture of sponge cakes, in particular, demands aeration, which can provide support and avoid sinking the sponge.

Also, if you prepare meringue and other low liquid recipes, you will want to prevent a disaster by having extra liquid in the sweet treats. The good news is vanilla paste is suitable for high liquid recipes like pancakes and cakes. It is also useful in low liquid recipes, wherein you do not want to ruin the consistency of the mixture.

In general, vanilla paste and vanilla extract are interchangeable in the kitchen, but use the paste if you want a more convenient way and avoid spending money and scraping vanilla beans. So, trust in the vanilla paste to meet your baking needs in the kitchen, quickly transforming simple dishes into something extraordinary.

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