The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

orange flower water

Yippee's picture
Yippee

orange flower water

Hi, 

Can this be used in place of vanilla/orange extract at equal quantity? 

Thx

 

 

  

 

 

 

 


 

suave's picture
suave

I think that if you shiff it, the answer is going to be "no, not really".

Yippee's picture
Yippee

del

Debra Wink's picture
Debra Wink

Flower waters are very perfume-y and can easily taste like soap in quantities similar to extract or zest. Use with care. 

Yippee's picture
Yippee

Never used it before. I just opened the bottle and smelled it??? 

 

If the dough needs 8 tsp of vanilla extract, how much orange flower water should I use to replace some of the vanilla extract to infuse some orange aroma to the dough?

 

Or should I just use orange extract instead? If so, at what ratio to replace the vanilla? 

 

Thx

Ilya Flyamer's picture
Ilya Flyamer

How about orange zest? That'll be good.

suave's picture
suave

My records show that I've used it on a teaspon per kilo of flour scale.

semolina_man's picture
semolina_man

As mentioned above, flower waters are potent.  Orange flower and vanilla have different volatile compounds.  They are not interchangeable in a recipe, if a similar experience is desired.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanillin

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geraniol

 

What is your recipe?  What are you making?  8 tsp of vanilla is a large quantity.  

albacore's picture
albacore

I love orange flower water and use it quite a lot.  As others have said it's powerful stuff and very perfumey. I like to add it to Crema Catalana when I make it and I find that 1/8 tspn is about right for a 4 cazuela amount of mixture.

Lance

Our Crumb's picture
Our Crumb

You probably have all the replies you need, but...

That 8 oz bottle is too big to be a concentrate.  So it won't act like vanilla or an extract.  You'll have to use it at higher volume and perhaps adjust recipe liquids down accordingly.  I was looking for Aroma Fior d'Arancio (concentrated orange blossom extract) to make seasonal pandocini a year or two ago and finally found it in an Italian deli in the north end of Boston.  Tiny bottles and you use just milliliters per recipe.  Like Fior di Sicilia from KA.  Packs a pretty punch.  Until then, I could only find what you have, more dilute "orange blossom water" solutions sold in international food shops mainly catering to middle eastern kitchens.  I remember whole shops selling hundreds of flower blossom waters in the garden city of Isfahan, Iran back in the day.  They do like their flower waters in that part of the world.  And obviously in France, from your bottle's label.

Happy baking,

Tom

Yippee's picture
Yippee

I will bake tomorrow and send the baked goods out on Monday. To play it safe, I probably will postpone using the orange flower water until a subsequent bake.  

Thanks again, 

Yippee

Yippee's picture
Yippee

I made a basbousa today to test the potency of my orange flower water. 2tsp for 500g semolina. Not too strong for the cake, and the cake looks quite exotic. But I don't think the aroma will go well with panettone.  I'll just save the water for making Mediterranean desserts in the future. 

 

 

 

Benito's picture
Benito

You’ve been busy with very fancy looking baking Yippee, another beautiful bake.  I’m not sure that I’ve ever tasted orange water, did you try a tiny bit to see what it tasted like before using it?

Benny