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You are here: Home / Food / Making your own vanilla extract is easy and delicious

Making your own vanilla extract is easy and delicious

September 4, 2013

{This post may contain affiliate links, please see my disclosure policy.} 

I have been using my own vanilla extract for a while now — and it is amazing!

Vanilla extract needs to sit for at least two months — though six months is best — and the store-bought kind often is only soaked for a couple weeks!  You can absolutely taste and smell the difference between this and the store-bought kind.  And this is easy.

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All you need is two simple ingredients:

  1. A big bottle of vodka — in a glass bottle — I felt weird about doing this at the store with two little ones — we don’t buy liquor ever, but just swallow your pride and do it — ha.
  2. 16 vanilla beans.  {They are about $12 for 16 beans.  This is a steal — considering those little crappy vanilla bottles cost about $8!!}

You have to pour out a bit of the vodka in order to get the correct ratio of alcohol to beans.  You should have 3 beans for every 8 ounces of alcohol.  So I needed about 40 ounces for my 16 beans.  I weighed it all out, but you really can just approximate.

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Cut the vanilla beans down the middle to get the juices flowing.  I have a friend who “tenderizes” her beans and beats them to hell.  I didn’t take that approach — and I’ve also heard of people not cutting them at all and still making excellent extract.

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Of course, my son loved helping with putting the beans in the vodka.  Do you see how much I poured out?  Not very much, but that was how much I measured out — so if you buy “Burnett’s” (crappy but not too crappy, according to the hubs), just pour out just above the logo — very scientific.

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Here it is at the beginning.

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And here it is after two months. We are now at 4 months and it is much darker!

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I still have most of it in my vodka bottle {ha}, but I am putting them in these super-cute 4 oz bottles for family for Christmas and such. My mother-in-law already got hers and she loves it! Super cute gift idea.

wildflowerramblingstake1

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Comments

  1. Rachel says

    September 4, 2013 at 9:57 am

    Very cool! I just shared this post with the hubs. xo

    Reply
    • wildflowerramblings says

      September 4, 2013 at 9:53 pm

      You should make it and surprise him :)
      wildflowerramblings recently posted…Making your own vanilla extract is easy and deliciousMy Profile

      Reply
  2. Jessica says

    September 5, 2013 at 12:38 am

    I’ve always wanted to do this! I love how you just put the beans right into the bottle. And I didn’t know that the store bought ones could possibly have only been soaked for such a short time, boo! I can’t wait to try this.
    Jessica recently posted…The Blogger’s Digest #4My Profile

    Reply
    • wildflowerramblings says

      September 5, 2013 at 3:29 pm

      It is so much better — I hope you post about it :)

      Reply
  3. Renita says

    September 17, 2013 at 1:22 am

    The left over vodka could be used in Pie dough. It makes a flakier crust according to America’s test kitchen.

    Reply
    • wildflowerramblings says

      September 17, 2013 at 7:04 am

      Thanks Renita, great tip :)

      Reply

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Amy is a former Kindergarten teacher, M.Ed., turned homeschooling mom. Sharing her imperfect life and her love of teaching & learning, reading, herbal remedies, parenting and more.
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