My 22 year old son has just developed gluten intolerance.  I’m a chef, baker and instructor but over Christmas I cheated and used gluten free packet mixes and bought bread to substitute for wheat products.  Quite honestly, most were appalling so I am working on adapting my baked goods (all from scratch ) to gluten free. Plenty of people have already expressed interest in fresh baked gluten free goods.  I’ve already been successful with corn muffins, scones and almond tart. next stop pizza.  My question is gluten free vanilla extract.  Pure vanilla extract is based on alcohol.  I was thinking of soaking vanilla pod in sherry wine and using it teaspoon at a time in place of alcohol based vanilla.  My other thought was to grind left over vanilla pod with granulated sugar but was not sure how successful this would be and proportions of sugar to vanilla pod, as well as proportion of sherry wine to vanilla pod and how long to leave it soak before using it.

Hmmm, I think that alcohol does not have any gluten (a protein in wheat flour that contributes structure to cakes and breads).  If you are avoiding alcohol for other reasons, you can make vanilla sugar, use the pods steeped in liquid from the recipe, or maybe try vanilla paste (not sure about the alcohol content, if any, of the paste).

Sponge-type cakes like genoise can be made more easily with gluten-free flours (like cornstarch or cassava) as they derive structure from eggs and starch. 

I have heard that butter cakes can be made with gluten-free flours if things like xanthan gum are added, but this seems trickier (and maybe not so tasty?).

Good Luck!

Thanks for reply.  But alcohol is made from grain so it normally does contain wheat/gluten.  Even vodka that used to be made from potatoes is normally made from grain alcohol now, be it wheat, barley or rye, all of which contain gluten.  I know from various gf friends that they have different tolerances for alcohol in food.  My son now has potato based vodka, Budweiser and others do gf beers, and tequila is safe as well as wine.  Where he is so newly diagnosed it is very important to be rigid in using safe products and even more so if I am making gf baked goods for clients.

Nielsen-Massey Vanilla is gluten free—I’m sure there are other brands too—but NM is widely available.  I don’t know, but I would also suspect that most distilled alcohols would be be gluten free as well, even if made from wheat—it seems like the distillation process would take care of any gluten.

From what I know McCormick is gluten free. One of my friends/her sister/her father and their friend are all allergic to gluten so I did some reasearch about what I can use in a flourless cake, and they all ate it with no problems lol

OONAGH:
  Good afternoon to you. Welcome to our culinary club. Sorry to learn about your son’s medical condition. I just spoke to a lady
at NATIONAL PRODUCTS CO. Her name is Molly..very knowkedgable about their products. This company produces liquid vanilla as well as other forms of vanilla & baking products for the super large comm. bakeries here in America.. I told her of your concern. I would call her & discuss your needs with her. She has exactly what you are interested in. Tell her Cass/Las Vegas, NV. sent you.
  Good luck & enjoy the rest of the day.

  ~FRESHKID.

OONAGH:
  I forgot to list the telephone number for Molly.

  I -800-525-2431

Here’s a Web site that has some very useful ideas and tips for gluten-free baking:
http://glutenfreegirl.blogspot.com/

Oonagh - 09 January 2009 12:26 PM

My 22 year old son has just developed gluten intolerance.  I’m a chef, baker and instructor but over Christmas I cheated and used gluten free packet mixes and bought bread to substitute for wheat products.  Quite honestly, most were appalling so I am working on adapting my baked goods (all from scratch ) to gluten free. Plenty of people have already expressed interest in fresh baked gluten free goods.  I’ve already been successful with corn muffins, scones and almond tart. next stop pizza.  My question is gluten free vanilla extract.  Pure vanilla extract is based on alcohol.  I was thinking of soaking vanilla pod in sherry wine and using it teaspoon at a time in place of alcohol based vanilla.  My other thought was to grind left over vanilla pod with granulated sugar but was not sure how successful this would be and proportions of sugar to vanilla pod, as well as proportion of sherry wine to vanilla pod and how long to leave it soak before using it.

Dear Oonagh,

sorry to hear about your son’s sudden intolerance to gluten free products.
One of our customers whose daughter has got the same conditions as your son has a very interesting blog that you may want to check but I also wanted to let you know about our website: http://www.vanillabazaar.com
Feel free to have a look and I hope you find products of interest to you and your son.

All the best and kind regards
Vanillagirl.

this article cleared up the whole vanilla ordeal for me.
http://glutenfreegirl.blogspot.com/2006/11/dark-brown-joys-of-vanilla-extract.html