The kitchen is one of the most used parts of every household, which sees a lot of action. This is not surprising at all because every single human needs food and water to survive. A kitchen is also a place that frequently sees a lot of experimentation. After all, no one wants to eat and drink the same kind of boring food every day. Apart from creating main courses, people love to create yummy drink concoctions and sweet treats that tickle the palate because a sweet ending is a requirement for capping each meal.
Kitchen Escapades
With the kitchen being a high traffic area for all the members of your home, you have to ensure that you do everything in your power to keep it neat and clean. The area where you prepare your meals, drinks, and desserts have to be maintained well and kept hygienic because food preparation and handling can affect your health. Typically, when you make your drink and dessert experiments, the kitchen sink and counter will be filled with a lot of used mixing bowls, utensils, measuring cups, and the like.
This beautiful chaos is a critical part of all your kitchen escapades because you really can’t make innovations on your menu without using a lot of kitchen materials and ingredients. One of the most frequently used ingredients for drinks and desserts is vanilla. When it comes to baking and making your favorite drinks, you know that adding vanilla is a typical requirement because it adds a little something extra to cookies, cakes, muffins, frosting, ice cream, coffee, and shakes.
Gastronomic Kitchen Creations
For these gastronomic kitchen creations, you can use pure vanilla extract, French vanilla syrup, vanilla flavored essence, or even vanilla bean pods. All create different flavor explosions depending on the strength of the vanilla concentration and the kind of vanilla you’re getting. There’s Madagascar, Mexican, Indonesian, Tahitian, and more.
On top of that, if you are fairly observant and adept at being in the kitchen, you will notice that there is such a thing as regular vanilla and French vanilla. These two are often seen in flavors of ice cream, coffee, and even frosting. What sets them apart?
Vanilla versus French Vanilla
French vanilla is, in fact, not named this way because of where it is produced. It is also incorrect to assume that this comes from France. There is no such thing as a French vanilla bean because the vanilla plant can only grow ten to twenty degrees north or south of the equator. It needs a warmer temperature to thrive.
French vanilla only received its popular moniker because of how it is used when making ice cream. The classic French way of making ice cream is using an egg custard base, which is why French vanilla is not pure white but looks more cream.
The French vanilla flavor has now been recreated in many ways, and they are known for having a deeper and richer flavor than plain vanilla. They also have a sweet and slightly more buttery taste when compared with regular vanilla. Nowadays, you can see an abundance of it in French vanilla flavorings on the market with French vanilla syrup, flavoring, or coffee creamer.
Bonus Recipe
Here is a yummy French vanilla-based Smoked Ice Caramel Macchiato. This is perfect for a warm summer day when it is just too hot to have a steaming cup of java. This drink is like dessert in itself because it is decadently rich and strangely satisfying to your sweet tooth. Here is the recipe so you can try to replicate it in your home kitchen.
Smoked Ice Caramel Macchiato Recipe
Ingredients:
½ ounce of Monin French Vanilla Syrup
½ ounce of Monin Brown Butter Syrup
2 shots of espresso
4 ounces of milk
Caramel swirl topping to drizzle
Whipped cream
Procedure:
- Be sure to fill a 16-ounce tall glass with a fair amount of ice. To make it even fancier, use crushed ice.
- Pour the above ingredients into a mixing tin in the order that they are listed.
- Add the ice form the glass into the tin. Be sure to use a large tin to prevent spillage.
- Cap the tin and shake it vigorously to mix everything inside.
- Drizzle the sides of the now empty glass with the caramel syrup. Make a fancy pattern on the side of the glass for a cool effect.
- Open the cap of the mixing tin and pour back everything into the glass.
- Add your whipped cream garnish, drizzle with more caramel syrup, and then serve with flair and style.
And there you have it, your very own French vanilla drink, which you can savor with family and friends. Main dishes, drinks, and dessert from your kitchen don’t only warm your belly but your heart as well, especially when you enjoy it amidst the company of your loved ones
