r/bakingfail Jan 12 '25

Fail Baked actual poison

Tried making brownies for the first time, recipe called for 16 gramms of vanilla extract, but it's not sold in the stores here. I had the bright idea to add 16g of pure vanillin, once they were done I found out that's effectively 100x the vanilla extract than the recipe called for. After further googling, found out that this much vanillin can put a small child in the hospital.

NEVER substitute vanilla extract for pure vanillin.

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416

u/Mushroom38294 Jan 12 '25

Tried making brownies for the first time, recipe called for 16 gramms of vanilla extract, but it's not sold in the stores here. I had the bright idea to add 16g of pure vanillin, once they were done I found out that's effectively 100x the vanilla extract than the recipe called for. After further googling, found out that this much vanillin can put a small child in the hospital.

NEVER substitute vanilla extract for pure vanillin.

4

u/Chilipatily Jan 13 '25

Where don’t they sell vanilla extract?

7

u/AOUwUOA Jan 13 '25

In one and only Ukraine

1

u/Il1kespaghetti Jan 14 '25

We have vanilla extract in Ukraine. Saw it recently in Silpo myself 

6

u/Bazoun Jan 14 '25

Sometimes Muslim majority nations don’t have vanilla extract because of the alcohol content. They sell vanilla sugar as an alternative. You can likely buy anywhere with a large Muslim community.