Making your own vanilla extract

Anyone who bakes uses vanilla extract sometimes, and the store-bought stuff is nice enough, but it does usually have some water and sugar or corn syrup in it.  Wouldn’t it be nice to avoid additional sugary additives and to have vanilla extract that smells even better?  Wouldn’t it also be nice to have some extra to turn into homemade gifts?  Fortunately, even though it takes some time, it’s so easy to make your own vanilla extract.

What you’ll need:

– 4 vanilla beans.  I bought a 6-pack of Madagascar bourbon vanilla beans from The Kitchen Project for slightly less than $20 total, including shipping.  If I were making a lot more, I could have saved by buying from their suppliers at vanilla.com in bulk. You can use Madagascar, Mexican planifolia, or Tahitian vanilla beans, whatever your preference might be, if you have one.
– A 750ml bottle of vodka.  I went to the liquor warehouse and asked about the most neutral-tasting vodka brands.  Then I chose one in my price range – i.e., not the bottle for $89.  Mine cost closer to $21.  You can use rum or brandy as well, but those will impart their own flavor and aren’t clear so you won’t be able to see progress, so I suggest that you use vodka at least for the first batch.
– two 32oz canning jars with lids
– a strainer
– approximately six 4oz amber bottles with screw-on lids

First order of business is preparing the vanilla beans.  Take a moment to examine them.  They should be moist, flexible, and slightly shiny with no hints of mold or crystals.  If you find any mold on a bean, toss that one before it spreads to the others.  And don’t miss out on that great vanilla bean smell. Vanilla is often code for plain or even boring, but vanilla beans actually have a complex scent that I personally think is just to die for, with hints of fruit notes, slightly woody notes, and even a bit of spice.  Yum!  Vanilla’s reputation as a boring flavor comes more from its ubiquity and from imitation vanilla than from the actual scent of the beans.

You’ll split each of the 4 beans lengthwise with a sharp, small or medium-sized knife. Leave the ends uncut so that each bean forms a very long V.

Add them to your canning jar and pour the vodka into the jar. Close the lid tightly, store the jar and the leftover beans in a cool, dark place away from direct light, and shake the jar several times a week until at least four weeks have passed.  Six to eight weeks would be even better.

I started this batch about 10 days ago – and yes, that’s a bottle of Braggs Apple Cider Vinegar, in case anyone had any doubts as to my crunchy-granola tendencies.  The extract is normally in the pantry as pictured but with the pantry light switched off and the door closed.  You can see some vanilla bean sediment in the bottom if you look closely. I could leave that in, but for consistency in flavor, I will pour it through a strainer into another canning jar and then pour that into approximately six 4oz amber bottles with screw tops, which I will then store in a cool, dark place.  How do I know it will be 6 bottles?  Because 750ml of vodka is a little bit over 25 fluid oz, and 25/4 = a little bit more than 6. I may have about 2oz left over at that point.  By the way, if you have more vodka to use than a 750ml bottle, you can go ahead and fill the canning jar up to 32oz and add one more split vanilla bean.  Then you can probably make about seven 4oz amber bottles of vanilla extract.

This leaves us with some questions.

What do I do with the vanilla beans after they’re done?  You can do several things.  You can cut some up and put them in sugar for a couple of weeks to make vanilla sugar.  You can use them at least one more time to make the same amount of extract.  Or you can cut them up and place one piece in each of the amber bottles.

Is this cost-effective?  It is if you use vanilla extract often or if you would like to give some away as gifts.  Using what I paid for 4 vanilla beans, a 750ml bottle of vodka, two canning jars, and six 4oz amber bottles, I estimate each finished 4oz bottle will have cost me between $5 and $6.  Since it costs about $8 for half as much store-brand vanilla extract that has water and corn syrup in it, I think you can make the argument that it’s cost-effective, as long as the extract is used.  It’s in high-proof alcohol, so it will keep essentially forever.

Just don’t drink it straight.  If you must indulge your inner lush, use rum or vodka to make vanilla cordial instead.  You’ll thank me.