How to make your own or substitute vanilla extract in baking.

Much like baking powder and speciality baking sugar Vanilla and Almond Extracts are another key baking ingredient that can be difficult to source as an expatriate.   Vanilla Extract is a key ingredient in most cakes and other baking, it is very good at imparting a subtle taste and helps add that certain something to your cakes.  I usually swap it with Almond Extract in my December baking as I find the almond imparts a more ‘Christmassy’ taste.   

The extracts can be a challenge to find abroad – I have not yet come across them in the local supermarkets here in Astana.  In many countries it is possible to buy a Vanilla (Almond) Essence but these are artificial substitutes and do not give the same depth of flavour as the original.  It is like using lemon juice from a bottle instead of squeezing a lemon.  Because I bake so much I must admit to cheating and buying large bottles of extract when I am in the UK and bringing it back with me.  It is one of the few items I do this with.  While I love the challenge of finding ingredients locally I firmly believe that every expat should be allowed a list of items that are absolutely ‘can’t live without’ that they can bring in without feeling guilty.

Extracts are ridiculously simple to make at home – you take vanilla pods (5-7) and split them.  Place them in a clean, sterilised bottle and cover with about 225 millilitres of vodka and just leave it. It will start to be usable within about 3 months and the longer you leave it the more the flavour will develop. When you want to use it strain through a muslin cloth before adding to the mix.  Lemon and almond extracts follow the same principals and are much cheaper to make from scratch because of the price of the raw ingredients.  I like to keep some infusing in the cupboard incase I run out of my shop bought product. If you have a good supply of small bottles you could present some home made essence to friends - the scarcity of this product in many places would make it a much sought after gift.

Split Vanilla pods, place in a bottle (or a tupperware if bottles are
 not available) and leave to infuse in a dark place.

3 months later the extract is ready to use, just
strain through a muslin before adding to the mix.

Unfortunately making your own is not a viable solution if you find you have run out of extract mid way through baking your cake.  Luckily substitutes are available but most will change the taste of the cake.  If you really do not want to change the recipe the alternative with the least impact on flavour is maple syrup.  If you don't mind a change in taste you can have fun experimenting with flavours.  All alternatives are substituted on a 1:1 ratio.

Liqueurs are a good alternative – just about anything will work and you can tailor your liqueur to the flavour of your cake; rum or bourbon is good in a plain cake.  Kaluha would work well with a coffee cake, fruit schnapps would work well in muffins made with the same flavoured fruits.  When we were on holiday in Tenerife years ago I bought a banana liqueur which was fantastic in baking.  Despite the name Madeira cake does not contain any Madeira (the cake is actually a lemon cake and was so named because pieces of the cake would be served with and often dunked in a glass of the liqueur).  Nevertheless Madeira is a wonderful substitute for vanilla extract and works particularly well in Victoria sponge. 

The alcohol disappears in the baking process but if you are concerned and baking for children or those with particular religious sensibilities a strong steeped tea is another good substitute.  I find this works particularly well in chocolate cakes - green tea or Earl Grey giving a beautifully subtle yet distinctive flavour.

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Baking Banana Bread

I love bananas.  One of the real treats living in Nigeria was the abundance of the fruit – we could just walk into the garden and pick them straight from the ‘trees’, although you had to keep a careful eye out for snakes.  The bananas in Nigeria were nothing like the big tasteless ones you tend to get in Europe, they were small, soft and oh so sweet.  We were even able to get red bananas which were sweeter still, and plantain which is not at all nice raw but is beautiful fried. 

One of the things that surprised me when we moved to Kazakhstan was the easy availability of bananas, we get them year round and although they are a little pricey the cost is not prohibitive.  I am not sure where they come from but they are reasonably tasty.  They do perish rather quickly so you can have to

eat them fast or leave a few to go black and then bake banana bread. The break is very easy to make - so much so that I tend to use it as my stand by for unexpected visitors and the children have learned that if they leave some bananas in the bowl they will get cake.  It is also a cake with ingredients that are easily sourced just about everywhere, even in the most obscure postings.

My banana bread is based on a heavily edited version of Nigella Lawson’s recipe from How to Be a Domestic Goddess. I leave out the nuts (I worry about young children eating nuts) and add chocolate chips.   I take 110g of raisins and soak them in Tokaji overnight, if I don’t have time or, more likely, forget to do this the day before I just boil them up on the hob.  Most recipes call for rum, brandy or bourbon but the mellow taste of Tokaji works extremely well with the banana bread.  It is, in fact, my sweet cooking wine of choice but it can be difficult to find.  In a pinch I will use Madeira or Sherry.  

Raisins in Tokaij

In one bowl I combine approximately 175g of flour, 2 teaspoons of baking powder and ½ of baking soda. 

In another bowl I mix 125g of melted butter and 150g of sugar.  Add 4 mashed, over-ripe bananas to the butter mix followed by two eggs, the raisins (and any left-over Tokaji, don’t waste it) and vanilla extract.  I then add the dry ingredients to the wet; I find if I add a little at a time I only need to use a wooden spoon to mix. Once that is done I add the chocolate chunks about 75g, I like really dark, bitter chocolate because I think it combines well with the bananas, if I can't find proper cooking chocolate I just use my own. 

Ready for the Oven

The cake goes in a low oven (about 170 degrees) until a tester (a knife in my case) comes out clean, this is usually about 1 hour but it might take a little longer.  I know that I should not eat the cake mix but who can resist it? The mashed bananas make this particular mix deliciously satisfying.

Banana Bread

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How to Start a Family Pancake Day Tradition

Shrove Tuesday; children around the world get to enjoy pancakes for pudding at school or as a treat when they get home.  My mother would always have pancakes ready for us when we got home and I try to do the same for my children. 

I usually cook pancakes or waffles for breakfast on a Saturday morning but I held off last weekend and promised the children pancakes for supper today.  It always surprises me to see pancake mix on the shelves of the supermarkets in the UK.  They are the simplest things in the world to make and when I read the instructions on the side of the ‘ready made’ mixes they usually say ‘just add milk and an egg’.  Since the basic ingredients are milk, egg, flour and baking powder I am at a loss as to what people think that they are buying.  I did once buy a packet to see whether it had a special ‘ingredient x’ that made the pancakes taste superior to my own but I was underwhelmed. 

I never measure my pancake mix, I just add the basic ingredients by judgment and mix them up – more milk for crepe’s and a thicker mix with a little more baking powder for American style pancakes.  If I want a richer taste I might add an American cup measure of yogurt or ricotta.  Sometimes I use a cup of sourdough starter instead of baking powder.  I always fry my pancakes in butter, it gives a much nicer taste than oil.

Melt the butter while preparing the mix.  The pan has to be very hot.  

Brown and ready to eat.

When I was a little girl my mother would sometimes add sugar and apples to the mix.  She fried the pancakes in a beautifully heavy, thick bottomed, cast iron pan.  This was never washed in soap but always oiled and layered in kitchen paper before being put in the cupboard.  It is a thing of beauty and I truly covet it.  I thought about taking it home with me when she died, it traveled round the world with her but sadly it is too heavy to bring abroad on our limited baggage allowance.  I have left it with my father for now, I use it sometimes when I visit him and it always brings me fond memories. 

My beautiful Uzbek Pancake Serving Dish

This year I have been able to start a tradition for my own family.  Uzbek pottery is beautiful stoneware decorated in colourful patterns making it a feast for the eyes.  We know a potter who comes to Astana a few times a year.  Sukrob brings plates directly from his own workshop and is able to fulfil individual requests.  My Christmas present last year was a full dinner service that my wonderful husband ordered for me.  He also bought me a pancake server.  This is actually a ‘plov’ dish, designed to keep rice warm but it works wonderfully for pancakes or just about anything else.  I look forward to the day when I can cook my Shrove Tuesday pancakes on my mother’s frying pan and serve them to my family in my plov dish.  I wonder what my daughter will add to the pan and the dish when she passes them on to her children.

Pancakes in their dish.

All rolled up and ready to eat.

Ersatz Expat - Baking Without Self Raising Flour or Baking Powder

I truly enjoy baking but as an expat it can be a bit more of an adventure than baking at home.  In the UK or the Netherlands I just run down to the shops where I can buy... self-raising flour, caster sugar, muscovado sugar, chocolate chips, flavour extracts, shortening, ready chopped nuts... the list is endless.  In many other countries it can be more difficult to get the ingredients together.  Sometimes they are not all available and the ones that are may come in a different form and so need some work before they can be used in the recipe.

I have found that expat bakers fall into two categories – the ones that get frustrated by the substitutions and the ones that turn it into a bit of a treasure hunt.  I love experimenting with substitutes, and a lot of friends ask me how to swap ingredients.  It was the inspiration for my blog's name and I thought I would do a series of posts on how to substitute in baking and cooking.

How to make your own self raising flour.

One of the few things you really do need for baking is baking powder.  Self raising flour is quite difficult to source in most parts of the world so you have to add baking powder to the flour to make your own. 11/2 teaspoons per 125g of flour.  

When I first arrived in Astana a fellow expat told me that baking powder could not be bought in Kazakhstan and had to be brought from home.   I did not believe her; after all it is possible to buy cakes here so there must be baking powder. That said, I could not find any translations in my dictionary and there were no tubs of anything that looked like it in the supermarket so I did start to think that my confidence had been misplaced. 

I decided to ask a lady in the cake section what I needed to add to flour to make the cakes.  She must have laughed herself crazy at my gesticulating and at my pigeon Russian.  Nevertheless she very kindly took me over to the baking section and handed me a small packet of baking powder which is called  Разрыхлитель Теста in Russian, problem solved.  I had been looking for the large tubs that are common in the UK and last for years.  Here the baking powder comes in small 7-10g packets.  When you think about it this is a much more sensible way to package it as it means that the powder will be used before it goes old.

Baking Powder, the name can be confusing on some packets because the lower case t is written m in Cyrillic

If you can't find baking powder you can make your own - just add Baking Soda and Cream of Tartar in a 1:2 ratio.  Baking powder is a mix of alkali (baking soda) and acid so if you are really stuck you can use lemon-juice or white vinegar instead of cream of tartar in a 1:5 ratio with baking soda instead of 1:2.  You need to be really careful with this though as you may need to adjust the amount of liquid in the mixture and you will almost certainly have to add a little more sugar.  Add the substituted soda/acid mix to the cake batter just before putting it in the oven.  With commercial powder the chemical reaction works in two stages, the first on the bench and the second in the oven.  With a home-made substitute the chemical reaction will start straight away.

Ingredients for emergency baking powder, 1 tsp soda to 5 tsp lemon juice.

Baking Soda and Lemonade starts to work quickly so use it immediately.

Be prepared for your cake to fail if you use this method, my success rate has only been about 50% but it is worth a try.  I find cupcakes work quite well because there is less work for the raising agent; if you use lemon juice instead of vinegar you have a lovely base for a lemon drizzle cupcake.

Cupcake made using baking soda and lemon juice instead of baking powder.