My sister has made it quite clear that she has a small addiction to vanilla extract. Pair that with me seeing a few posts on Pinterest about making your own vanilla and I had the recipe for the perfect Christmas present…which would also be a little selfish because of course I was keeping some for myself. And as long as I was making it for Tory, I might as well make a few more bottles to give for Christmas too. Since Mom definitely needed an upgrade from the fake stuff, she is definitely getting a bottle!
Making homemade vanilla is probably one of the easiest DIY food gifts, I’ve ever made. It’s a simple matter of slicing vanilla beans, adding vodka (or another alcohol, like bourbon – which I’m going to try next time), shaking and waiting for a couple months. This is NOT a good DIY project for Tory, given her limited plan-ahead skills.
Most of what I made to give away was from Madagascar vanilla beans, which are probably the most common and most traditionally used in vanilla. I also made little samplers from every other vanilla bean variety I could order for Tory and I. We’re totally having a vanilla tasting today. Feel free to change up the variety of the beans or make hybrid versions using multiple varieties. I think Beanilla gives a really good description of the various varieties of vanilla. It reminds me of reading the description of a bottle of wine!
There are two ways you can make the vanilla. You can make a large batch by removing some of the vodka from the bottle and adding split vanilla beans. This will make it easier to strain out any vanilla caviar. Or you can make it right in the individual bottles. This is what I decided to do, and I didn’t strain out the vanilla caviar at the end because I wanted the rustic, homemade feel to it. Plus, to me it’s a bonus if a little specks end up in the food.
Here’s all you need:
I found the bottles at Specialty Bottle. After some searching, I decided that Beanilla would be the best place to buy vanilla. They had great reviews and some of the best prices I could find. When you pick an alcohol, you want to pick something decent but it doesn’t need to be top shelf. Remember you may want to use it in something where the alcohol is not cooked out, like fudge, so make sure it’s not bottom of the barrel alcohol.
After some research, I settled on 5 vanilla beans for 8 ounces of vodka. Star by splitting the vanilla beans lengthwise, leaving a little bit connected at the top.
Put the vanilla beans in the bottle and then pour the alcohol over the top. Make sure to completely cover the vanilla beans.
Shake the bottles and move them to a cool dark place in your house. Shake about once a week and allow to age for 2 months or so. The vanilla will continue to get stronger as it ages, but after 2 months I found it was good enough to start using.
Here are pictures of it at 1 week, 3 weeks, and 8 weeks.
Now the vanilla has aged for 8 weeks and you can get it ready to give away. I took out some of the beans leaving about 2 beans in the bottle. Vanilla flavor will continue to be extracted from the beans and like a fine wine, it will only get better with age. I split the 2 beans that I left in the bottle in half, because that would allow them to stay submerged as you start using the vanilla. Save the rest of those beans to make some vanilla sugar or vanilla powder.
Now all that is left is to add a cute, homemade label to the bottles and they are ready to give away!
Since we left a few vanilla beans in the bottle, you can continue to add vodka as you use up the vanilla and it will continue to extract more flavor from the beans. Eventually it will run out of course, so use your judgment when it starts getting too weak. Enjoy!
- 5 vanilla beans
- 8 oz vodka
- Bottle
- Split the vanilla beans lengthwise leaving a small piece attached at the end. Add the beans to the bottle and cover completely with vodka. Shake the bottle.
- Set in a cool, dark place. Allow to age about 2 months, shaking once a week.
- Once the vanilla is ready, you can leave all the beans in if you want, or take them all out. Or like I did – do something in the middle and remove all but 2 beans.
- Continue adding vodka as you use the vanilla to continue extracting all the flavor out of the beans.
Thanks for the bottle of vanilla extract! It looks so professional too. I can’t wait to try it. And Tory, I loved that cranberry salsa dip….it was SO good!