[Sca-cooks] Powdered Vanilla

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

Rosine wrote:
>  And powdered vanilla. What
>  would you do with powdered vanilla?

Well, my recollection is that commercial vanilla powder is white
(although there's an all-natural vanilla powder by a gourmet vanilla
company that is beige). So i'd imagine it could be used in situations
where one wants vanilla flavor but also wants to preserve white
purity - since adding liquid vanilla would make white a bit "creamy"
looking - as in certain cakes and frostings/icings.

Until recently, vanilla powder was only or at least mostly for
commercial use, such as in packaged dry mixes like you buy at the
supermarket, or those HUGE sacks of "brownie mix" or "cake mix" that
most modern commercial bakeries use to make their standardized and
bland tasting products.

Also, powdered vanilla can be used in situations where one needs to
avoid alcohol. There is a glycerine-based vanilla liquid for that
purpose.

I've also seen it called for in modern sachet/pot pourri blends,
since it won't evaporate as quickly as alcohol-based vanilla liquid.

Anahita

Aside: is there a significant difference between frosting and icing,
or is it just a regional word usage variation like stuffing vs.
dressing (me, i put stuffing in a turkey and dressing on a salad) or
soda vs. pop? It seems to me that i hear them used interchangeably -
although as with other words, perhaps there is a specific usage in a
specialized baking/pastry community...