Vanilla sugar- how much when I'm using it to replace normal white sugar? (+ some muffin questions)

[panur_links]

I got it as a gift and it smells just wonderful, btu I ahven't used it yet. I thought using it to replace the normal amount of sugar I use for making muffins would be a good idea, butis that wise? will it be too strong compared to normal sugar?

also, random, but sometimes (not always) while my muffins come out great and puddy and lovely, they kind

Comments

[a_boleyn]

Vanilla sugar is used as a replacement for the vanilla EXTRACT in your recipe NOT for the sugar so you'd be wasting your vanilla sugar to no good purpose.

As to your muffins ... sounds like they're baking unevenly. Do you rotate your muffin pan 180 degrees, so the ones that were at the front would be at the back, the ones on the left are now on the right?

If you're baking 2 muffin pans at a time side to side, switch the one on the left side of the oven to the right side. In this case, the muffins in the middle of the oven would be on the outside. Do not rotate the pans in this case.

[panur_links]

I'm not sure that's it? the matter is that the muffisn are puffy when i take them out of the oven, all the same. It's after I take them out that some deflate as bit...

[a_boleyn]

What temperature are you cooking your muffins at? Too high heat might be the answer as the falling suggests the center isn't cooked/firm so it falls as it cools. You might want to cook it longer at a lower setting and rotate as well. They'll cook more evenly and hopefully, all the way through.

By the way, are you using the toothpick test to make sure they're all cooked? If you could figure out a pattern to the ones that fall, you could test for THOSE muffins being cooked through.

[desperance]

Not to disagree with your previous commenter, but I disagree totally with your previous commenter. Apart from intrinsic deliciousness, the point of vanilla sugar is to replace the regular sugar in your recipe. That's why you don't need to use vanilla extract. Any recipe that calls for sugar and any kind of vanilla flavouring, just disregard the flavouring and use vanilla sugar as a substitute for regular sugar, in the same amount.

(And make your own vanilla sugar! One vanilla bean, in a quart jar of baker's sugar. As you use the sugar, just top the jar up again; one bean will flavour it for years.)

[panur_links]

thank you for the information!

[fourth_moon]

I'm used to vanilla sugar as a flavoring (the way you might use vanilla extract), something like a tablespoon full for a recipe where you just want vanilla as a sort of background note - it rounds the other stuff. For example, muffins with apple and almond.

If you want the main flavor to be vanilla, you could use more vanilla sugar (I'd just use half a vanilla pod, but that's because I love using the basic produce instead of extracts from that). Using only vanilla sugar sounds excessive to me.

How about asking the person who gave you such a lovely gift? She/He probably uses it for backing, too.

Hope this helps!

[panur_links]

thanks!