Certain things are unique to professional kitchens, confined to the cold lighting of stainless-steel galleys, rarely seeing the light of day: tepid coffee drunk from plastic quart containers. Blue-striped towels frayed at the edges like ancient papyrus. But perhaps my favorite industry secret, and one I call upon to level up my baked goods, is vanilla powder. Not beans, not extract, and not paste. Powder. Recently I tried a new-to-me brand of vanilla powder from Beyond Good , the first version I’ve seen specifically for home bakers. I swapped out my extract for a dash of the precious powder in my go-to vanilla cake recipe to give it a spin. Specks of vanilla peppered the cake, lending it an alluring aroma akin to fresh beans. One taste and I was hooked, reminded why professional bakers have been gatekeeping this wonder ingredient as their own. Beyond Good Pure Ground Vanilla Powder Vanilla powder (also called vanilla bean powder) is the entire bean—pod, beans (a.k.a.…