Vanilla can be paste, essence, extract, sugar or bean. One is not necessarily better than another, the important word is natural, ie it is actually made from real vanilla.
The other important thing to realise is that different brands of vanilla can taste very different depending on the where the beans are grown. Just because the flavouring you choose is the most expensive does not mean you will like the way it tastes! It took me a while to realise this, and then a little while longer to find the brands I like best. One is very cheap the other is a little more expensive.
For everyday flavour in cakes and cookies I find that the Lidl Belbake Natural Flavouring suits just fine. Conveniently it also costs less than £1 a bottle!
If I want to make blancmange or custard I prefer the Lakeland Natural Professional Flavour that they call Custard.
It tastes more like your old favourite custard powder we all used to use, but somehow more so - hard to explain unless you taste it! It costs rather more, but it is more concentrated and if you buy two at a time they are a bit cheaper.
Telly chefs seem to favour scraping the beans out of a vanilla pod or even putting the whole bean into some sugar and running the whole lot through a food processor to make vanilla sugar. It really is far to extravagant for everyday baking and entirely unnecessary.
It may take a few bottles to work out which flavour you prefer and some experimentation to decide how much to use as strengths vary hugely. For the Belbake I usually need two capsful in an average recipe, but for the Lakeland it is so concentrated I only need six drops.
Of course if you don't like vanilla then use a flavour you do like, it's your baking so you can choose!
Enjoy
Karen Lizzie
xxx
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