Unlike traditional vanilla extract, which goes through a process involving soaking vanilla beans in alcohol to extract flavor, vanilla bean paste boasts a thicker consistency and contains both vanilla extract AND vanilla bean seeds or flecks of vanilla – the vanilla caviar! It offers a potent burst of vanilla essence with the added visual appeal of vanilla seeds. Often, if you want to buy vanilla, paste will be cheaper at the grocery store because it also contains sugar. The sugar in vanilla paste also contributes to the overall flavor – making it a sweet vanilla flavor that can complement more simple recipes like whipped cream.
Rodelle’s Natural Vanilla Paste is like honey in consistency and a dark umber (not amber) color. It’s sweet, smooth, vanilla-y and just super pretty in whipped cream, frostings, cookies, cake, and much more – we’ll list some more ideas on how to incorporate vanilla bean paste below! We tried out a few other vanilla pastes on the market and a lot of them have either a jam or liquid type of consistency or potential citrusy flavor note to the paste. To thicken this product to a paste, most brands will use additional thickener agents like sugar and gum tragacanth (natural thickener) that is mixed in with vanilla extract and seeds or if you make it at home – you usually use corn starch or glycerin.
Image above shows different brands of vanilla bean paste. You can see a bit of difference in color and consistency. Rodelle’s Natural Vanilla Bean Paste is all the way to the right. 🙂
What is Vanilla Bean Paste Used For?
Below are some ways to incorporate vanilla bean paste in home baking and cooking:
- Baking: Vanilla paste adds a vanilla flavor and speckled appearance of vanilla beans to baked goods like cakes, cookies, muffins, and pastries. So instead of using vanilla extract and vanilla bean – you can get best of both worlds in vanilla bean paste!
- Desserts: It’s commonly used in custards, puddings, ice creams, and other desserts where a strong vanilla flavor and the visual appeal of vanilla seeds are desired. You can absolutely add vanilla bean paste to like a darker colored dessert such as chocolate cake but for the visual aesthetic, most will use in something lighter in color like vanilla bean buttercream frosting or like a vanilla cake.
- Frostings and icings: Vanilla paste can enhance the vanilla flavor in frostings and icings for cakes and cupcakes, providing a richer vanilla taste and again, vanilla flecks appearance. We love making a vanilla whipped cream frosting from this recipe or this cream cheese frosting
- Sauces: It can be added to sauces for sweet or savory dishes, such as fruit sauces, caramel sauces, and some savory sauces such as this vanilla aioli sauce, to infuse them with vanilla flavor.
- Beverages: Vanilla paste can be stirred into hot beverages like coffee, tea, latte, or hot chocolate for a richer vanilla flavor, or added to cold beverages like milkshakes, smoothies, and other beverages like an Vanilla Old Fashioned.
Homemade vs. Store-Bought Vanilla Bean Paste
Discussing homemade vs store bought vanilla bean paste – there are pros and cons to both, which we will list below:
Ingredients and Equipment
Homemade: would usually include vanilla beans, sugar, and a thickening agent. You would also need a food processor to really blend the vanilla beans into little pieces. Sometimes folks will add other alcohols like vodka in the mix for flavor to more closely match traditional vanilla extract flavor.
Store-bought: Professional products, like Rodelle’s vanilla bean paste, use vanilla bean extract, seeds, sugar, and sometimes stabilizers again like sugar and tragacanth. We also have specialized equipment to make vanilla bean paste that really enhances the vanilla flavor, is smoother, and a more consistent overall appearance and flavor of vanilla bean flecks and specks in the paste.
Quality and Shelf Life
Homemade: You can really get into the nitty gritty of customizing your blend such as creating more citrusy blends, chocolate, peppermint, almond, etc. A big drawback to homemade vanilla bean paste is that shelf expectancy is less than a store-bought paste and cannot readily be tested or guaranteed by most home bakers. We would not recommend making your own vanilla bean paste at home if you plan on using it on an occasional basis because adding sugar to the mix could increase the risk of microorganism growth.
Store-bought: We can guarantee consistency in the blend of vanilla bean paste so it tastes the same every time, longer shelf life, and quality and food safety assurance as there are multiple tests done to ensure you get the best product. Even though we add sugar to vanilla paste, the product goes through a process that reduces the chance of microorganism growth and hence, a longer shelf life. Some brands have a shelf life of 3+ years usually.
Cost
Presently, vanilla bean paste on the market is very reasonably priced and a great lower cost substitute for vanilla extract in recipes (1 teaspoon of vanilla extract is equal to 1 teaspoon vanilla paste and equal to 1 vanilla bean). The amount of time and money you would pay to make at home is equal or more to purchasing a bottle of vanilla paste at a retail store but homemade is a unique and a wonderful gift option!
No matter if you want to make your own vanilla bean paste or purchase in stores, this type of product is a fantastic addition to any baker or chefs pantry and a fun new way to use vanilla!
Here are some of our favorite recipes to use paste in and as a reminder, you can substitute vanilla extract very easily with paste for recipes!
Vanilla Ginger Sparklies (yes – it is delicious in drinks!)
Vanilla Lovers Berry Cookie Tart Bars
Vanilla Flecked Flaky Biscuits
Homemade Sweet Potato Fries and Vanilla Aioli Sauce
Drizzled over a bowl of oatmeal or some cottage cheese for a bit of extra sweetness!
And so many more which you can find here!