It’s easy to make your own vanilla extract rather than buying the expensive little bottles of (often fake) extract at the store. All it takes are a few vanilla beans, a tall bottle, and some vodka. Once it’s made, you can keep the recipe going for years by adding more vodka and vanilla beans; and, you get an extra “ingredient” – the vanilla beans. Just slice open the bean and scrape out all the seeds, they add wonderful flavor to your baking.
Which Vanilla Beans
Madagascar vanilla beans have flavor and aromatic qualities that make them superior for making vanilla extract. Individually, they are quite expensive ($2-$3/bean), but in larger quantities they are much more reasonable. I checked a variety of sources but found Grade A beans at Beanilla for $29.99 for 25 beans. Also, I was able to use a coupon code from RetailMeNot to get an additional 10% off (hey – every little bit helps).
Vanilla Extract Ingredients
Making the Extract
Once you’ve got your beans, just put them in the clean bottle; add good quality vodka, seal, store on a pantry shelf, and wait. The extract’s ready after a month, when the vodka will have turned light brown and smell wonderful. If you keep adding vodka and beans as they’re depleted, you’ll never need to buy extract again. And, if you know a great baker, this makes a thoughtful gift.
Finished Vanilla Extract
Just Started Extract
Yes, thank you for the information. I ordered the vanilla bean kit from the site you mentioned so now all I have to do is add the alcohol. I figured I could at least do that part of it and the rest should take care of itself. I appreciate the information and hopefully in a month or two I’ll be able to post how it turned out.
Thank you for the reply, it does help but I have two last questions. I don’t mean to be dense but I’m not a cook and while I was waiting for a response to my question, I went on-line to see if I could get it answered. I found several recipes with measurements that people used but there are just two LAST (I hope!!!) questions I have about this that I couldn’t find. We are told to cut the beans lengthwise and extract the seeds but in the recipes I saw, the seeds were added BACK into the bottle with the beans. I don’t see a need to cutting the beans and extracting the seeds if the seeds are to be added back. Is removing the seeds necessary to facilitate better vanilla extract from the beans and does one need to remove the beans/seeds by straining them out after the distilling process is over? I wished all of this information was in one spot but it seems to be scatted around and these questions came up. I did find that a higher alcohol content would not extract the flavor any better so it was to be kept around 35%-40% (70-80 proof) alcohol. Thanks for posting the recipe on this. I was not aware one could make this. I had a sister-in-law that would drive to Mexico to get 5 big bottles of the real vanilla extract, the amount that could be brought in through customs, and when one adds up the gas (we all lived in Houston at the time) and time and what have you, THAT was some pretty expensive vanilla extract!!! I guess that separates the REAL cooks from the wanna bees, eh!? Thanks for posting!!!
Edward, sorry to be confusing in the instructions, but in this recipe, the whole beans are added to the vodka prior to distilling (the beans are not cut open and the seeds are not taken out). After the distilling process is complete, you can use the vanilla beans in recipes that call for them in baking. It’s when you decide to use a vanilla bean in baking that you cut it open and scrape out the seeds to use in your recipe. Does this make sense?
Has anyone experienced a mold problem with their beans. I went online to see where the best price was for these beans and seems there were a number of people who bought these beans and had moldy beans shipped to them or developed mold after receiving them. As far as the recipe, can someone tell me how many beans per oz. alcohol to use to make this, or does it matter!?
Hi Edward, I’ve been buying my beans for making this from beanilla, and have not had any mold problem. As far as how many beans to use, for my pantry stash I used 20 beans in 32 oz., while for gifts I used 5 beans in 8.5 oz. The gifts seemed a little weak, so I would probably up it to 6 in the gift jars if I was doing it again. Hope this helps!
I’ve made my own vanilla extract for years and simply drop the vanilla pods into the bottle of vodka (no need to dirty another container!)
That’s a great idea Mary!