A few months ago of Buster Rhino’s Southern BBQ started tweeting about making vanilla extract. I was intrigued. I’m often disappointed by the vanilla you buy at the supermarket. First of all there is that crappy artificial vanilla extract stuff that is pure chemicals. Then there are the “pure” extracts where the first ingredient is water followed by ethyl alcohol, “vanilla extractives” and sometimes sugar. This didn’t seem right at all. Why would the first ingredient be water of all things? Why doesn’t it contain vanilla beans? Crazy, right? There are some brands that you can buy at finer stores with better ingredients but I figured why not make it.
Darryl did a fantastic post about making vanilla extracts which details not only how to make it but also some of the myths that people have about vanilla extract. He points out that at the heart of it vanilla extract involves only two ingredients (alcohol and vanilla beans) so how hard can it really be.
For my batch I bought a small bottle of vodka (cheap stuff) at the LCBO. As Darryl says there is no need to buy the fancy stuff at all. I had vanilla beans on hand already so that was taken care of. To make the vanilla extract making process even cheaper I would highly recommend buy your vanilla beans on eBay. At the supermarket you can easily pay about $3-5 (or more) per bean. On eBay you can find them for mere cents! eBay also has a good selection in terms of types of beans (Bourbon, Tahitian, Mexican etc) so it has the supermarket beat on that as well.
It took some patience to wait for the extract to be ready (two months) and I definitely took sniffs often to make sure things were progressing well. The final results are AMAZING. The vanilla is so much more potent than the store bought stuff and tastes so much better. When I’ve baked with it the whole apartment smells so yummy.
My first attempt at making extract was just in a small batch but now that I know how easy (and delicious) it is I’ll make larger batches. Part of me also thinks that these would make great gifts around the holidays for friends who like to bake. Now I’m obsessed with making other extracts. Next on my list are lemon and almond.
Enjoy!
Homemade Vanilla Extract
200 mL Vodka (I used Polar Ice)
3-4 Vanilla Beans
Glass or plastic bottle with sealable lid
Slice the vanilla beans lengthwise to reveal the seeds and put them in the bottle.
Add vodka, to cover and put on the lid. Put the bottle in a cool spot away from the sun (a kitchen cupboard is find) and shake the bottle every few days.
Let the mixture sit for about two months and watch as the colour deepens. After two months it should be ready. Feel free to top off with additional vodka as you use the mixture.
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Great blog post entry. Cant wait to try this.
[...] and super-tasty – homemade vanilla extract. Yum! [What's On My [...]
Great idea! Do you have any idea on the shelf life on a bottle that is made?
imagine the shelf life is pretty long as it’s pretty much just alcohol…
Awesome blog post,
Couple really quick comments.
1) Slice your vanilla beans in half exposing all the beans
2) Shake daily (or not)…shaken daily though will absolutely allow you to have acceptable vanilla extract in about 10 days, shaken daily will give you awesome extract in less than 30 days for sure.
3) On the question of how long it will last, basically until you are done. You are pickling the vanilla bean in alcohol which means it won’t really rot. If you are worried about it though just remove the bean once the vodka is no longer covering the bean. This product also just matures with age and keeps getting stronger for about 5-6 months.
4) If you can use about 9 beans for each 250 mls though. As was stated, buy from ebay or there is a couple of vanilla bean companies that sell then really really cheap as well.
Thanks for the additional insight Darryl!
This is awesome can’t wait to try it!! Going on ebay right now!
[...] Darryl and Tonya have written fantastically about how homemade vanilla extract will be more aromatic, more potent. [...]