So what's the difference between imitation vanilla and vanilla extract? About three dollars. I was at the store one day and the little bottle of vanilla extract was $4! I saw a much larger bottle of imitation vanilla for about $1.50, so naturally, I bought both. I tried each of them in some sugar cookies and found that I preferred the imitation! It was sweeter and had a lovelier aroma. I also tend to put more vanilla than recipes call for, so having such a big bottle for such a reasonable price made me feel better about that habit. Unless you just can't live without pure vanilla extract, I recommend imitation vanilla 100%.
Happy cooking!
