Easy home made vanilla extract.

I ran out of my store brought vanilla extract recently. I went to Costco to get a new bottle and the price made me pause. It is $26 for one bottle (about 12 oz). This is all the motivation that I needed. It is time to figure out how to make home made vanilla extract.

 I did some research and decided to follow the below method. There are many recipes out there using different types of alcohol. But I think the below works best and can be used in a wide variety of dishes.The below photo shows the color of 3 week old vanilla extract. If you look closely the specks you see floating around are tiny droplets of oil from the dried beans.

For this process you will need vanilla beans, vodka, measuring cup and a narrow glass container. You can use any clear alcohol but vodka works the best as it absorbs the essence of the vanilla beans the most.

I bought about 5 organic vanilla beans for about $13. It comes in a glass container that looks like a test tube. 

I cut the beans horizontally from one end to the other with out actually separating them into two.

Please make sure the bottle you are planning to use is long enough to cover the top of the beans with alcohol.

 

The ratio is for 1 beans you will need about 2 oz of alcohol. Pour the alcohol into the bottle so the beans are fully covered. I had to pour an ounce more to ensure that the beans are fully submerged. 

You can also cut the beans horizontally instead of vertically and then follow the same steps. I went with vertical cut as I like to keep the shape of the beans intact.

Close up picture - so you can see the dark seeds within the beans. It looks like poppy seeds but smaller.

Now leave this in a cool dark place. Shake it occasionally. And you are done!

The longer you keep this the better it will be. I recommend keeping if for at least 4-6  months before using it so the full flavor will be infused into the alcohol.

The first bottle is about 2 weeks old and the second one below is what I made today. See, how the color changes over time.