I am a mass consumer of vanilla extract.
I have vanilla on my oatmeal every single morning. The problem? I can absolutely tell the difference between vanilla extract and imitation vanilla. And the real stuff? It’s not cheap. At our grocery store, the good stuff is $3 an ounce. Our family joke was that it would be cheaper for us to take a Baja cruise and get of in Ensanada to buy cheap vanilla than for me to get it at Costco.
So when I saw recipes floating around the web for homemade extract, I gave it a try. It is super easy (the hardest part is waiting the six weeks for the beans to masticate in the vodka.
Want to make this cheaper (and oh so delicious) version?
This is all you need:
1.75 liter bottle of Vodka
25 Vanilla Beans (If you want to just try this recipe out you can buy 25 beans here. If you want to go into mass production, here is where you can buy beans in bulk.)
1. Cut the beans lengthwise down the middle.
(This will open up the beans and let all the good “vanilla dust” soak into the vodka.)
2. Put the cut vanilla beans in the vodka bottle. Replace the lid and shake the bottle. Store the vodka bottle in a cool, dark place and shake the bottle once a week for the next six weeks.
If giving as gifts, you can order these adorable brown bottles off of Amazon. fill each bottle with four ounces of your six week old vanilla extract.
Add a cute label. (Anything can be elevated with a cute label.) This is an Avery kit with all sorts of pre-designed labels. All you have to do is add your verbiage and you are good to go!
The world’s cutest gift. With a personalized label:
Lipp Private Reserve
Vanilla Extract
Bottled 2014
Delicious and about 10% of the cost of store bought vanilla.
I’ve given vanilla extract to all of my kids and they have all demanded refills!
Where & what brand of Vodka do you purchase? What’s the best deal for quality? Does it matter? Can it be the cheapest bottle at Trader Joe’s? Or should it be something of better quality? (Vodka is foreign to me so pardon my potentially silly question!) ????
Emily – it honestly doesn’t matter – I’m not a drinker, so I had no idea. I bought the cheapest stuff at the Target aisle (I think it was Smirnoffs).
Good luck with it – you will do great.
Thanks, Kathi!
I’ve been wanting to try this. Thanks for sharing such an easy recipe. I’m excited to get started!!
You’ll have to give me an update!
I just ordered the stuff to make this! Hoping it will make good holiday gifts for some friends and cousins!!
Let me know how it turns out!
Now do you have one for maple extract too?! Haha. I can’t seem to find anything but imitation maple 🙁
I don’t – but if you find one please share!
Hello! Thanks for the recipe! So, you just pour in the vodka juice after 6 weeks? There’s nothing more to it than soaking the vanilla beans in vodka and then using that vodka? 🙂
That’s exactly it. I know- so easy. I don’t even strain it!
Amazing. Thank you for sharing! 🙂