I recently discovered LorAnn Oils. I absolutely loved how the orange bakery emulsion tastes in some scones I had, so I went kinda crazy and bought a whole bunch. Here are my thoughts on these products. I first put a little tiny drop of each in separate buttercream containers, but found that even that was too strong. Everything tasted like chemicals. Nasty. I was not impressed. After that I made up some cake batter and put a little drop in separate portions to see how the flavors tasted baked in cake. This was a huge improvement.
- Butter Rum - disgusting. Didn't taste like butter or rum at all. Tasted like industrial strength cleaning solution in my mouth. I was so unimpressed that I contacted LorAnn Oils to complain. CS pointed out that what I bought was an ultra concentrated bottle, so perhaps even my 1 or 2 little drops in about a cup or so of batter was too strong. I will try this again using just a couple drops in an entire batter and see what happens.
- Buttery Sweet Dough Bakery Emulsion - This one made my buttercream taste like skittles and I was completely turned off. However, used in moderation in a cupcake I ended up with a pleasant pound cake taste.
- Champagne - tastes like those candy message hearts you see around valentine's day. With a little less flavoring this might be really nice in a cupcake for those who like that kind of flavor. It's also ultra concentrated, so following the same as the Butter Rum, it might end up tasting quite nice, with a light fruity accent.
- Irish Cream - tasted great in buttercream. I love love looooved it when I used it in Italian Meringue Buttercream for my sister's birthday cake. Baked in a cupcake it tasted more like butter pecan, which I also love. Mmm.. yum.
- Princess Cake and Cookie Bakery Emulsion - tasted like sugar cookies with a slight lingering citrus aftertaste. I tried adding this to sugar cookies to see if it might make them taste like those ultra commercial fake tasting sugar cookies you can get at the supermarket, but it ended up tasting a little odd. They were really close to the flavor I was going for, but I decided that maybe I didn't really like that "raw cookie dough" taste after all.
- Red Velvet - the flavor wasn't very strong in the cupcakes, so I can't comment on that. I did try it in a cheesecake a couple weeks ago and it was pretty darn awesome, if you are a fan of red velvet. I looked through LorAnn's recipes and saw these 2 recipes that I would like to try too!
- Red Velvet Cake
- Red Velvet Brownies
I also bought Marshmallow and Bavarian Cream flavors. I tried the Bavarian Cream in some banana pudding I made, but the banana flavor was so strong you couldn't really tell the bavarian flavoring was in there. I might try it again someday. I am thinking perhaps in some fondant.
I also tried out some McCormick flavors.
- Anise - surprisingly delicious in the cupcakes. That is, if you like black licorice. Cupcakes tasted like regular vanilla cupcakes, but with a slight licorice aftertaste. I guess I could pair that with some plain buttercream? I'm also toying with the idea of making a jasmine tea infused buttercream. I wonder if that might go as well.
- Coconut - great! This was awesome in buttercream and the cupcakes too! I would love to make an "almond joy" cupcake or maybe pina colada with this.
- Coffee - I added this to chocolate cake mix and it made the flavor so much richer, but I think I prefer the LorAnn bakery emulsion, or just putting in strongly brewed coffee better.
- Maple - Mmmm... heavenly. I don't like bacon, but love maple & bacon cupcakes. I made some maple & bacon cookies the other day and added just a bit of this stuff along with the fresh maple syrup I put in. Mapley goodness.
In conclusion, McCormick makes some really great extracts! Although LorAnn oils are more concentrated so you don't need to use as much when you bake, I am finding that they taste unpleasantly like chemicals. I will however try them in an entire batch of cake and see if that helps in cutting down the chemical taste. If I can find a good balance then maybe they will be a good future investment.
No comments:
Post a Comment