Vanilla Paste - Your Baking Needs Ingredient

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Vanilla Paste - Your Baking Needs Ingredient When
it comes to baking, one ubiquitous ingredient
that is used worldwide is vanilla. It is used in
the form of either vanilla extract or vanilla
paste. But why is vanilla so important to baking?
It cant be said that it was always important in
Western cuisine because this second-costly spice
was introduced in Europe only after the discovery
of the New World. Then how did vanilla become so
important to baking? Read this article and know.
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The history of Vanilla in Western cooking The
rich history of vanilla goes back thousands of
years in the area which is now central Mexico.
There the Totonac people cultivated this
beautiful orchid and used the pods as medicinal
and fruit plants. When they were conquered by the
Aztecs in the 15th century, vanilla beans were
offered as part of the tribute they had to pay to
them. The Aztecs mixed it with another
Mesoamerican native cacao to make a drink called
xocolatl. When Spanish conqueror Hernan Cortez
met the Aztec emperor Moctezuma II, he was
offered vanilla as part of his gift which he
then brought back to Europe. At first, the
orchid was grown as a flower in the botanical
gardens of France, England and other places but
it never grew fruit. In 1836 Belgian
horticulturist Charles Morren suggested that the
fruit was not being produced because the chief
pollinator was a bee native to only Mexico. Hence
growers tried hand pollinating the flowers, which
found success in the French colony of Reunion
near Madagascar by a slave boy called Edmond
Albius. Even today, vanilla is grown through hand
pollination and even the process of drying the
fruit and turning them into products like extract
or vanilla bean paste is done by hand. This is
why the spice is so costly. Coming to its use in
cooking, at first the rich and nobles of Europe
used it like the Aztecs, with chocolate. It was a
drink that was restricted only to the
aristocratic class of Europe. In 1602, the royal
pharmacist for England Queen Elizabeth I, Hugh
Morgan, thought of using the spice on its own and
not just with chocolate. Since then, vanilla has
become the most important ingredient in baking.
It reached back to the American continent with
the growing love for ice cream in the USA. Thomas
Jefferson is credited with bringing back vanilla
pods from France in 1789 and by the 19th century,
it was the most preferred flavour in ice cream.
Why is vanilla paste so important in baking Now
that you know the history of the use of vanilla,
lets see how the paste or extract enhances the
baked products it is used in. The most important
role is to enhance the flavour of the baked
goods, which otherwise could have a bland taste.
It does that by enhancing the sweetness of the
baked goods and compliments the
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taste of sugar and eggs, the other two major
ingredients in baked goods. Sometimes, you may
not taste the vanilla in a product, for example,
in a chocolate cake, but the presence of the
vanilla elevates the flavour of the cake.
Is vanilla bean paste better than other vanilla
products? The answer lies in what you are making.
In certain baking dishes, it is best to use
vanilla in paste form while in others, it is best
to use the extract or even essence. The paste is
best when you are making a dish where vanilla
will be the star of the show, like crème brûlée,
French vanilla ice cream, and so on. It is also
added to dishes in place of vanilla bean seeds.
But if you are making a baking dish that will
just enhance the flavour, then vanilla extract or
even artificial vanilla essence can do the job.
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