Homemade vanilla extract is a gift that keeps on giving—just ask Ina Garten, who’s been feeding her own DIY batch for an ...

Vanilla is one of those ingredients that shows up in nearly every baking recipe. Whether it’s the central flavoring agent in a vanilla custard, or a supporting ingredient in a cake or cookie, vanilla ...

I used to take vanilla for granted. Until the day I made chocolate chip cookies and found I was out of vanilla extract. So I left it out. It was like leaving out salt. The cookies lacked the round, ...

People who love to bake know that what they whip up in the kitchen is only as good as the ingredients they put into it. Reach for baking powder beyond its expiration date or substitute buttermilk for ...

The wafer recipe makes double what you need for the pudding. Save the leftovers for snacking, another banana pudding or grind up to make a cookie-crumb pie crust. (If you don’t want to deal with ...

A bowl of homemade mashed potatoes, surrounded by extra ingredients and kitchen tools - margouillat photo/Shutterstock Mashed potatoes: a reliable food that's always there for you when you need it.

Now that baking is back in season -- I don't know about anybody else, but even the promise of fresh baked pie or homemade cookies wasn't enough to get me to turn my oven on more than occasionally over ...