Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Kitchen adventure; vanilla extract

In May, I came across recipes on some of my favorite food blogs for homemade vanilla extract. With the frequency that I go through it, I decided I should try my hand at the "home brew" version. It also dawned on me that while making some for my personal stock, I could easily make more for holiday or hostess gifts. It seemed simple enough. After a few months of "meaning to get to that", I finally ordered the vanilla.
What you need:
*Vanilla beans {fresh are preferred}
*liquor {vodka, bourbon, or brandy will work}
*a container that can seal {I used 8 oz. Ball jars}
The ratio:
*3 plump vanilla beans or 5 scrawny ones per cup of liquor
The technique:
*Cut the bean length wise, leaving the slightly curled end attached.
*Place in container.
*Repeat until you have enough beans in the jar. Cover with the liquor.
*Shake!
*Put in a cool, dark place and shake once a week. After letting it infuse for 2 months, VANILLA EXTRACT!
Other variations you could try are flavored liquors or simply throwing a bunch of beans into the liquor bottle. In 2 months, I'll share the outcome. Also, I'll do a posts on vanilla sugar and vanilla infused maple syrup. You know, since I have all this vanilla around..

Have you ever tried this?

xoxoxo



5 comments:

Leia said...

This is so cool! Definitely want to try it :)

Dancing Branflake said...

No way! I never thought to make it myself but that is so awesome! And you're right that it would make an awesome gift. Lovely!

Josie said...

Oooh! I've never tried this but it's brilliant -- I'll have to give it a shot.
xo Josie
www.winksmilestyle.com

Jessica said...

What a great idea! I definitely want to try this.

Cee said...

This is the kind of project I would never even consider attempting... Mainly because of the two month wait involved before I got to test my extract. Patience is not something I have :) But this does look amazing, I can't wait to hear how it turns out!
xox,
Cee