Making your own homemade vanilla extract is incredibly easy to do and will save you a lot of money too in the process. The only thing you need is whole vanilla beans, a bottle of vodka and some patience. Oh and a dark place would be handy to have too.
You’ve probably noticed that the price of vanilla is incredibly high these days. Not only have vanilla beans gone up in price, but so have all vanilla products. This is due to several poor vanilla harvests combined with huge demand.
To give you an example, in November 2017, I bought a 118ml bottle of vanilla extract for 14.90 euros. Less than two weeks later, you paid almost €10 more for it.
Currently, the cheapest vanilla extract is the one you make yourself. You make a bigger investment at the beginning, but you get a lot for your money. Besides, making your own vanilla extract is not difficult at all, you only need 2 ingredients. And some patience. Let me show you how to make your own DIY vanilla extract!
As mentioned making your own homemade vanilla extract is very simple. Apart from the vanilla pods you need a glass jar or mason jars will work as well. Alternatively you can also use the vodka bottle itself.
Per 100 ml of vodka (3.3 fluid ounces of alcohol) you will need roughly 1.5 whole beans. If you have bought the vanilla beans in the grocery store the quality is likely not the best. In that case it wouldn’t hurt to add a few more vanilla beans in.
If you can get your hands on madagascar vanilla beans, tahitian vanilla beans or another great source of the vanilla it will have an impact on how your vanilla extract will taste. But whatever the case it will always be better than most store-bought vanilla extract! (and cheaper too!)
You also need a sharp knife to cut the fresh vanilla beans lengthwise. Place in a clean clear bottle and add the vodka until just under the rim of the bottle. Add a tight-fitting lid
And now the hardest part of this recipe is to wait. You need approximately 1-2 months before the vanilla is ready. Give the bottles a good shake every few days or so and you will see how it darkens each time.
Yes you can use different kinds of alcohol. Vodka is popular because it is neutral in flavor, but you can also use bourbon or rum to make the vanilla extract. That will give you a range of different flavors. Of course some of these will be expensive alcohol so the question is how much do you want to spend on the alcohol.
Well the vanilla extract will keep for years! Store it in a cool dark place preferably and avoid direct sunlight. That is also a good reason to use smaller bottles as you can keep the unused ones sealed tight.
If you shake the bottles once every few days you should be good. The shaking is helping the flavor to seep into the alcohol.
You should keep them in at least 1-2 months but longer is no problem at all. You will see how dark it gets and that is a good indicator to know when the extract has the best flavor.
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