Vanilla?

[gisele]

I asked this question in another section but I think this is a better thread to ask it in. my question is when alissa or anyone with a recipe says vanilla exactly what do they mean? Do raw people use just the vanilla bean or do they buy the extract or do they make the extract themselves?

[Morn]

Some people do use the vanilla bean. I however use an organic vanilla extract that I got at Good Foods. You have to be careful of the extracts ingredients and read the label. I have noticed some containing sugar and other artificial ingredients. Mine was $12.00 for a 4 oz bottle and the ingredients include water, organic alcohol 35%, and vanilla bean extractives. Hope this helps.

[puffysmom]

I think a lot of recipes call for the vanilla bean but at $6 a bean I cannot afford that as I think u use the whole bean for one recipe. I try to get the best organic liquid vanilla as I can. I know it has alcohol and prob been processed but it is a decision I decided to make so i can afford to eat this way.

[RawFoodieMom]

Vanilla... mmmmmmmm....

Actually, you only use a small piece of a bean for a recipe... 1" of a vanilla bean is equal to 2 teaspoons of extract. So if a recipe calls for 1 tsp of vanilla you onlly need half of an inch of the bean...

Debra

[Agave]

I use whole vanilla bean everyday.

Every morning I grind a whole one in my coffee grinder with cacao nibs to make chocolate vanilla powder for my morning smoothie...it smells sooooo incredibly good, chocolate+vanilla=meant to be together.

I def. think it takes a whole bean to flavor something really strongly with vanilla..and i dont think the split them open and use the seeds technique really gives anything a strong vanilla flavor either.

If anyone is interested in some cheap organic vanilla, I sell it for a dollar a bean, which is a lot cheaper than 6$ a bean... Email agavenectar @ yahoo.com if you are interested!