Latest Adventure: Homemade Vanilla Extract

So, in case you didn't know it, I'm the attempted version of Martha Stewart. In short, I try to be domestic...and usually end up with pretty good results...but the struggle along the way is often a mighty one. The burden is great.

My latest attempt to be like Martha was when (months ago) I decided I needed to make my own homemade vanilla extract. Those reading this blog (aka Mom) aren't the intended recipients, so I'll also share that I'm giving this away as part of a goodie basket this year for Christmas. I happen to make pretty tasty biscotti (I drizzle it with chocolate--how can it NOT be good at that point?!), so my plan is to put together baskets for friends that includes a bunch of biscotti (a single batch makes around 60 pieces), a bottle of the homemade vanilla, and a recipe card for the biscotti. I, of course, will be using the homemade extract when making the recipe. I figure that this is a great gift for a few reasons: 1) it's homemade and from the heart, II) it's tasty, and C) it's cheap. I think it'll be around $10-15 total for the entire gift basket--and that includes the basket itself. The challenge I face each year when giving gifts (and one that I imagine most people can relate to) is that I want to give something great to everyone I know--but I can't afford to do all that I want to in the gift arena. This idea helps solve a few problems on that front & also allows me to more easily give couples gifts. (It's always hard to know if both people in a couple will like the same thing...and there are only so many movie night gift baskets one can give before it becomes tiresome.)

The interesting thing about homemade vanilla extract is that a single batch can easily last for years. How? By adding more vodka (or whatever alcohol one chooses to use) to the bottle as it runs low. The same vanilla beans, in fact, remain in the bottle. Sure, you can switch them out or add more in--especially if the vanilla starts to get weak--but the point is to use the same vanilla beans and allow the vodka to absorb from them and darken over time. The longer it sits, the stronger vanilla one has to work with. Rather than running to the store to spend a ridiculous amount of money for artificial vanilla extract that's full of sugar, one simply needs to put in a couple of ounces of vodka when the bottle's level starts to drop a bit. So, this is also the gift that keeps on giving. (Vodka can be surprisingly cheap, so it's really quite economical.)

I decided to make a picture tutorial of how to go about completing this VERY simple process. What you need is:

3 vanilla beans
1 cup vodka
1 bottle with a tight fitting lid
kitchen scissors
measuring cup

That's it. A few interesting notes about the top three items:

1) The vanilla beans can be purchased on ebay for really cheap--much cheaper than if you were to buy them at your local market. I paid $6.57 for 24 grade A Tahitian vanilla beans, and that included shipping. Things to look for: the vanilla bean should NOT be dry or brittle. You want it very pliable. I bought from a highly trusted seller that had a picture of their vanilla bean tied into a knot; this showed that it was indeed a pliable bean. You also only want to use Grade A beans; the country of origin doesn't matter so much, but I have read that Madagascar beans can leave an oily film on the surface. This is not the case with Tahitian, so I went with that.

2) The vodka does not have to be the top brand. In fact, I bought the cheapest. By the time the vanilla beans work their magic, the vodka quality doesn't matter. (Plus, blind taste tests have shown that most people can't tell the difference between the vodkas--and in the story I watched about it a while back, most of the testers actually picked the cheapest brand as their favorite for taste.) If you are concerned about the quality of the vodka, you can use a Brita filter & run the vodka through it a few times. This will lower the alcohol content some, but it will produce a higher quality. (Or at least that's what my research said; I've never actually drank vodka so I'm just going off of what I read from multiple sources on that one.) I paid $11.75 for 1.75 liters.

3) I bought my bottles at Home Goods. TJ Maxx, Ross, Marshall's, and any other discount home goods store probably has them too. You can use a mason jar & decorate it with ribbon, but my problem with that is that it doesn't make it very pourable. So, I found bottles that were both cool looking, had a tight fitting cork, and that had a pour spout. I paid $2.99 for each of them.

Now for the easy part--putting it all together. (Collecting the ingredients was MUCH more work for me than any of the actual assembly. I made my first-ever trip to the liquor store today, incidentally. Of the list of things to have, I only had the scissors and the measuring cup to begin with.)

First, assemble your ingredients. For most, that should be a no-brainer. Make sure your bottles have been washed & dryed too. This is everything together:


That is one dozen of the vanilla beans on the plate, but I'm only using nine of them since I'm starting with three bottles. I plan on making seven batches total, but I need to find more bottles first.

Begin by slicing each of the vanilla beans down the middle, leaving about an inch connected at the end. This is part of why it's so important to have pliable beans--it should feel almost like licorice. This is one split bean:


I left a little more than an inch connected on each one, but that's just fine. You could actually leave them unsplit & this would work, but just not as well or as quickly. This is all three beans split and ready to go in a jar:


Don't they look like dancing legs? Well, maybe that's just me...and I swear I didn't sample the vodka.

Next, put the beans down into each jar. It's also important to note here that a taller jar works best for this very reason.


Then, measure out one cup of vodka. (Be sure to use a liquid measuring cup with a pour spout.)


I realize you know what it looks like to pour a liquid into a measuring cup, but I thought it looked kind of cool so I took a picture anyway.

Once you have your cup measured, slowly pour it into the bottle that contains the vanilla beans. I would've taken a picture of that, but it's a little hard to do when both hands are holding onto bottles and measuring cups--plus, since I shake a lot anyway, the pictures were already tricky to do. So, just imagine me standing over the sink, pouring the vodka into the bottle. This is what the end result looked like:


The trained eye will catch the fact that the vodka doesn't cover the vanilla beans in this case. I think I had beans a little longer than normal, so I cheated a little and added more vodka to the bottle than what the recipe calls for. Will this throw off the whole thing? No. It will simply add a little bit of time for the liquid to turn the dark color we're going for. However, the difference in quantity was so minute (it was less than 1/4 cup of vodka divided among the three bottles in order to top all of them off) that it won't really matter. This is what they all looked like when topped off and corked:


Aren't they kind of cool looking? I can't wait to see them as they darken! It should take approximately two months before it's concentrated enough/dark enough to use in cooking. I wanted to make sure I allotted enough time to make sure that happens, so I've got about four months before I'll be giving these away. Once filled, they need to be stored in a cool, dry, dark area. Exposing these to light will reduce the effectiveness of the process. Also, do not put these in the freezer because that will also slow the process down significantly. Every week or two you'll want to shake the bottle. Otherwise, you just let them be.

A few side notes:
-Store any unused vanilla beans in an airtight bag or container. Alternatively, you can throw a vanilla bean in a container of sugar to create vanilla sugar. There are several tips & guidelines online for how to best do that, so you may want to read up on that. Vanilla sugar works great in baking.
-You don't need to adjust the quantity of vanilla used in any recipe if you're using this instead of store-bought extract. Use the exact same amount that the recipe calls for.
-This can last for years; if you notice that the vanilla is losing its color over time, simply add another split vanilla bean to it.
-You can use other types of alcohol in place of vodka. Each will create a unique flavor; vodka just happens to be the simplest to work with.

That's pretty much it--the first of my bottles are "brewing" in a cupboard & I'm looking forward to seeing it all happen. Hopefully this will make a great gift that will bring my friends a great quality baking product they can enjoy for years to come! As Martha would say, "It's a good thing." As I would say, "It's a great thing!"