I never use vanilla extract, I find the taste chemical. I substitute with homemade vanilla sugar, fragrant and light, I simply double the amounts (as I love vanilla…).
Vanilla sugar is easy to make, you take a vanilla pod, split it open, scrape out the vanilla seeds, cut the pod in smaller pieces, and stick it all into a glass ofcastar sugar. Shake the glass, and let it stand for a couple of days. The wonderful aroma will spread through the sugar. As you use the vanilla sugar, just leave the vanilla pods, and pour more caster sugar into the glass. The vanilla pods will dry out, and stay good practically for ever, and if you need vanilla seeds for something else, just cut the pod into pieces, and put in you vanilla sugar glass.