“Vanilla” may seem simple, but when it comes to vanilla bean paste vs. extract, your choice can significantly impact the flavor, appearance, and overall experience of your baked goods. While each lends a delicious vanilla flavor, there are some key differences! Pure Vanilla Extract is the most well-known vanilla product and probably the one that most bakers use the most. It’s got every-day applications like coffee, pancakes and can even compliment many savory dishes. Vanilla Bean Paste is the fastest-growing vanilla product because it provides both vanilla bean flavor and vanilla bean appearance (the little flecks of vanilla you get from scraping a vanilla bean) – both in an easy-to-use jar. When you compare vanilla paste vs vanilla extract, what you should think about is where you want to use it and what you want to achieve. We’ll tell you all the differences between vanilla paste and vanilla extract here! Read on for tips and tricks to get the most out of each ingredient, and when to use each.
What is Vanilla Bean Paste?
Unlike traditional vanilla extract, vanilla bean paste boasts a thicker consistency and contains both vanilla extract AND vanilla bean seeds or flecks of vanilla. It offers a potent burst of vanilla flavor with the added visual appeal of vanilla seeds. Vanilla bean paste also contains a sugar base which helps amplify the vanilla flavor, suspend the vanilla bean seeds, and makes vanilla paste a delicious ingredient to make your whipped cream or frosting recipes with because of the sweetness.
Rodelle’s Vanilla Bean Paste is like honey in consistency and a dark umber (not amber) color. It’s sweet, smooth, vanilla-y and 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! Most vanilla bean pastes have a gum system to thicken them which helps with the suspension and even distribution of the vanilla bean seeds that you want to see in vanilla paste. Bakers love vanilla paste because it gives them the visual impact of vanilla beans without having to use vanilla beans which can be expensive, hard to find, and time consuming to cook or bake with.
Vanilla paste offers “the best of both worlds” with flavor plus visible vanilla specks. You can read more about our vanilla bean paste and where to find it here.
Vanilla Paste vs Vanilla Extract: Key Differences
Although both products provide vanilla flavor, they differ in appearance, texture, usage, and baking outcomes. The difference between vanilla bean paste and vanilla extract is that paste is thickened and has a sugar base while vanilla extract is a thin liquid and only three ingredients: vanilla bean extractives in water and alcohol.
Vanilla extract is the most common and convenient form to add pure vanilla flavor to sweet recipes, savory dishes, and cocktails. It’s perfect for everyday baking like cookies, cakes, and quick breads. This is because the vanilla flavor supports other ingredients like your classic chocolate chip cookie where you’ll also get the flavors from brown sugar, chocolate chips and butter. Vanilla extract also blends easily into batters and doughs, making it a go-to for most home bakers. Especially if you’re just getting started in baking, vanilla extract is the product that you should purchase because it has varied uses outside of baking including enhancing savory recipes like salad dressings and adding balanced flavor to cocktails.
When you have a recipe where vanilla flavor is the star, you may consider vanilla bean paste for its vanilla-forward flavor and the flecks of vanilla bean seeds. As you advance in your skills in the kitchen, you may want to add a more specialty flavor or aesthetic to your recipes and that’s when we recommend branching out to add vanilla paste (also commonly called vanilla bean paste) and to your pantry.
Vanilla bean paste and vanilla extract can often be used interchangeably in a 1:1 ratio. You’ll get delicious vanilla impact with either and they both bake well in recipes where heat is added. Vanilla bean paste is particularly lovely where you want to see the vanilla bean seeds.
How and When to Use Vanilla Bean Paste
Vanilla Extract is valued for its reliable everyday vanilla flavor, while paste is valued for the visible vanilla specks. Vanilla bean paste shines when vanilla is meant to be noticed. Everyone from novice to expert bakers use paste in many places where they want to see the visual impact. Top uses for vanilla bean paste include ice cream, frosting, pudding, whipped cream and creme brulee. It gives a “bakery-style” finish to desserts where you can see flecks or specks of vanilla. It’s an easy way to elevate a basic whipped cream frosting to something that looks store-bought. Some of our favorite recipes using vanilla bean paste are:
- Mini Vanilla Bean Cheesecakes
- Softest Fluffiest Vanilla Sugar Cookies
- Vegan Vanilla Layer Cake
- Vanilla Bean Cinnamon Buns
Choose paste when vanilla is the star ingredient and hero for visual appeal.
When Is Vanilla Extract the Better Choice?
Now that we’ve covered what vanilla bean paste is, let’s compare it directly to vanilla extract. Vanilla extract is the everyday workhorse of the baking pantry. Vanilla is such a staple base flavor, therefore the quality of your vanilla extract is key to a fragrant, warm, creamy end result for all your culinary endeavors. Vanilla extract gets its rich “vanilla” taste and aroma from vanillin, which is the primary flavor component of vanilla. Vanillin is a natural flavor component found in high-quality vanilla beans, the higher the vanillin, the better the quality. But, vanilla is also the result of over 250 naturally occurring flavor compounds from vanilla beans. You’ll be able to perceive the nuances of vanilla best in simple recipes where it isn’t competing with a lot of other ingredients.
Make vanilla extract the hero of your basic butter cookies, ice creams and custards. But also know that vanilla extract is a versatile option for baking, savory dishes and beverages. Because of all the natural flavor compounds, vanilla extract is a lovely flavor enhancer for many recipes. It’s kind of like the salt of baking! You’ll love vanilla extract for its versatility in recipes such as:
- Spiralized Potato Pancakes
- Healthy Chia Seed Pudding
- Birthday Mug Cake
- Funfetti Cupcakes
- Vanilla Streusel Coffee Cake
Can You Substitute Vanilla Bean Paste for Vanilla Extract?
Yes, vanilla bean paste and vanilla extract can usually be substituted directly. Fortunately for bakers, choosing between the two doesn’t require complicated conversions. The vanilla bean paste to extract ratio is 1:1, so we recommend using 1 teaspoon of vanilla paste for every 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract. The difference between vanilla bean paste and vanilla extract is not enough that you cannot substitute one for another in nearly all instances. One thing to note is that vanilla paste is inherently more viscous than vanilla extract because of the thickening agent. Because of this, if you are using vanilla paste in place of vanilla extract in a cold beverage, you should plan to agitate, stir or shake the drink until the vanilla bean paste has fully combined with the other liquids in the drink.
Because vanilla is used in such a small percentage in most recipes, you do not need to worry about a thicker vanilla bean paste affecting the texture or consistency of your finished recipe in nearly all cases. If you were using vanilla bean paste in place of a scraped vanilla bean in the chocolate making process, that might be a different story! Generally, if you’re following a recipe and it calls for vanilla extract, you’d be fine to use vanilla bean paste and vice-versa.
Which Vanilla Product Is Right for Your Recipe?
The best choice depends on whether you want convenience, visual impact, or a bakery-quality vanilla experience. Choose vanilla extract where you have many other ingredients or flavors and vanilla bean paste where you want to see the visuals of vanilla: ice cream, pudding, and frostings. If you’re making a vanilla cupcake, you may choose to put vanilla extract in the cake base and then vanilla bean paste in the frosting to give it that bakery-style finish on the top. After all, we eat with our eyes too and those little vanilla beans in the frosting add a real pizzaz!
Pure Vanilla Extract is a versatile, easy-to-use, daily product. We pour it in everything from our breakfast oatmeal to our evening tea latte!
Vanilla Bean Paste combines flavor and visual appeal of vanilla bean extract and vanilla bean seeds. It’s outstanding in vanilla cream recipes!
So, is vanilla paste better than extract? Not exactly. Both are interchangeable using a 1:1 ratio and are valuable tools in a baker’s pantry. Rodelle offers both options in many sizes for bakers of all levels who are looking for different products to achieve their desired baking outcomes.