Vanilla bean paste

A thick vanilla syrup made from vanilla extract and ground vanilla bean seeds, giving both flavor and visible black specks.

Vanilla bean paste: A small jar of thick, dark vanilla bean paste full of tiny black vanilla seeds, a spoon holding some
  • Baking ingredients and additives

Also called: vanilla paste

Vanilla bean paste contains vanilla extract plus vanilla seeds suspended in a sugar or gum base, so it gives the speckled look of real vanilla beans without splitting pods. It is usually used one-for-one in place of vanilla extract, and about 1 tablespoon replaces 1 vanilla bean.

It works especially well in pale recipes where the specks show, such as vanilla bean ice cream, panna cotta, buttercream and crème brûlée.

Bake it at VanillaGoods

Related entries

Sources

Written by VanillaGoods in our own words from these sources. Last reviewed October 15, 2026.

  1. Vanilla bean paste (Q162044), Wikidata