Certain things are unique to professional kitchens, confined to the cold lighting of stainless steel galleys, rarely seeing the light of day: tepid coffee drunk from plastic quart containers. Blue-striped towels frayed at the edges like ancient papyrus. But perhaps my favorite industry secret, and one I call upon to level up my baked goods, is vanilla powder. Not beans, not extract, and not paste. Powder.
Recently, I tried a new-to-me brand of vanilla powder from Beyond Good, the first version I’ve seen specifically for home bakers. I swapped out my extract for a dash of the precious powder in my go-to vanilla cake recipe to give it a spin. Specks of vanilla peppered the cake, lending it an alluring aroma akin to fresh beans. One taste and I was hooked, reminded why professional bakers have gatekept this wonder ingredient as their own.
Beyond Good
Pure Ground Vanilla Powder
What is vanilla powder?
Vanilla powder (also called vanilla bean powder) is the entire bean—pod, beans (a.k.a caviar), and all—dried and blitzed up into a powder. This not only makes the product a sustainable option (no waste!), but it also makes it an inexpensive alternative to pricier forms of vanilla. It tastes, looks, and smells like vanilla bean, because it is. Just far more accessible and user-friendly. (No slicing beans open, no scraping, and no worrying about the beans getting old and drying out.)
