I love looking for ways to make some of my favorite things at home. In this case, it was vanilla extract! I found myself with an excess of vanilla beans on hand (thanks to Amazon!) and I wanted to make some special gifts to give. A few glass bottles later, I had some fun and practical homemade gifts on hand!
The ratio which I used for my vanilla extract was three vanilla beans to one cup of vodka. You can use this ratio to scale up or scale down the recipe. I would suggest measuring out your container first with water and a glass measuring cup. Don’t pour out the water, though. Use it to water your plants!
All you need to do to the beans is split them lengthwise and drop them in the container. If they are a little tall to be covered by the vodka (such as mine below!) you may want to also cut them in half to be shorter so they will be covered by the vodka, for maximum vanilla flavor.
After a few months, the extract should deepen in color, and the vodka will begin to taste more like vanilla. The longer it sits, the more flavorful it will become! The extract below aged for a few weeks before I snapped the photo, just to give you an idea.
Homemade Vanilla Extract
Ingredients
- 3 whole vanilla beans
- 1 cup vodka
Instructions
- Split the vanilla beans lengthwise with a sharp knife. Place inside a glass container with a tight-fitting lid. Cover with vodka and seal. Shake the container vigorously. Store in a dark place for at least 2 months before using.
Recipe adapted from Simply Recipes
