I have been interested in making homemade vanilla extract after using a bunch in baking recently and seeing how expensive vanilla costs in stores. The homemade extract seems higher quality and easy to make. I bought some grade A beans on amazon. We typically have leftover vodka from some holiday get togethers and we never use up the vodka. I made a batch several months ago by splitting some old dried out vanilla beans into an almost empty vanilla container and filling up with vodka. The extract came out well so now I want to try the method starting with an empty jar and adding full beans without splitting. I am hoping the extract comes out dark like the video and the seeds still usable after a few months. I found a narrow and tall almost empty jar containing rose water. Using cheap vodka probably makes more sense but we combined a grey goose bottle with the Smirnoff some the vodka bottle is pretty much tainted already. Looking forward to seeing how the recipe comes out in a few months.
Ina Gartner vanilla extract quick video on youtube
Ingredients
- 1-2 cups of vodka or rum of a mild flavor
- 5-10 whole vanilla beans
Steps
- find a jar, preferable tall and narrow, best if can fit vanilla bean without bending
- place the vanilla beans in the jar, can put as many as can fit
- fill the jar with the vodka or rum at least as high as the vanilla beans
- store in a cabinet at room temperature, out of the daylight
- leave for at least a month probably best after 6 months
- the vanilla extra will last for years and the beans can be snipped and the seeds squeezed out for use in baking
Progress
1 day (March 5th)
9 days (March 14th)
2 months (May 11)
