homemade vanilla extract recipe

Today, over at Tidy Mom, it was brought to attention that NOW is the time to make homemade vanilla extract in order to have it be ready in time to give as Christmas gifts or to use in your holiday baking.  Basically, you need two months to make vanilla extract.

Did you know how easy it was to make your own vanilla extract?  I certainly didn’t!  Therefore, I decided to pick up a couple items on Amazon and am going to give it a whirl for this upcoming holiday season.

Disclosure: Any products reviewed in this post were purchased by me, with my own resources unless otherwise noted {and yes, I will always make that clear}. All opinions are always my own, are not influenced in any way, and I was not paid to write this post.  Amazon.com and other affiliate links appear in this post.  If you decide to purchase a product shown, and do so through one of the Amazon affiliate links, you help support this site. For more info view my Disclosure Policy.

You will want to make sure to head on over to Tidy Mom’s post where she gives a good overview on making homemade vanilla extract.  There is even a really cute, free printable label courtesy of Live Laugh Rowe.  Score!

The recipe for homemade vanilla extract could not be more simple:

• Vodka entirely covering the vanilla beans in your bottle (whatever kind of vodka you like….even the cheap stuff will work!)
• Vanilla Beans (about 3-4 beans per 4 oz bottle)
• 2 months of time (give the bottles a shake about once a week)

For me, I decided to check out Amazon for my supplies.  I am a Prime Member, so it really does make sense for me to use this outlet!

I went with clear, 4 oz. glass bottles.  The instructions over at Tidy Mom uses 8 oz. glasses, but when I went and looked at the size of my current extract bottles {and found the largest being only 3.5 ounces} I decided the 4 oz. option would probably work best for me.  I believe I will be okay with getting the vanilla beans into the bottles as well!  And yes, I realize that amber colored glass bottles would have been more “technically” correct for the extract.  But I like the look of the clear better and I would assume most of those I am giving these away to will keep it in a cupboard where it is dark most of the time.

{side note :: the listing I purchased was for a case of 24….I do not plan on making 24 bottles of extract, I plan on making some other fun gifts that would require cute little bottles.  Just thinking ahead my darlings…and for the price of a case of 24, I was sold!}

As far as vanilla beans go.  You are going to pay an arm and a leg if you go and buy the little packages of vanilla beans at your local supermarket {if they even have them}.  With everything I have read, and in all price comparisons I have now done, buying online is the way to go if you are going to be using a lot of vanilla beans.  Plus, you get a wide variety to choose from!

I decided to go with Madagascar Vanilla Beans.  From what I have read, the Madagascar vanilla beans offer you a smooth, rich, buttery vanilla {resulting in an extract that is great for baking!}.  But there is also Tahitian vanilla beans {flavor notes include chocolates, licorice, and caramel} and Mexican vanilla beans {rich and smooth with a subtle hint of smoky flavor}.

According to the description for this particular company’s offering, there are about 40-50 beans per 1/2 lb. package.  I will need roughly 3-4 beans per 4 oz. bottle, so that will take care of a lot of gifts!

Make sure to head on over to Tidy Mom’s for more info and do not forget to check out Live Laugh Rowe for these adorable free printable labels!

Error: Your requested Widget "recent posts" is not in the "Widgets for Shortcodes" sidebar

• [do_widget_area widgets_sidebar]
  • [do_widget id="custom_html-9"]
  • [do_widget id="search-3"]
  • [do_widget id="subme_widget-2"]
  • [do_widget id="simple-social-icons-4"]
  • [do_widget id="custom_html-3"]
  • [do_widget id="custom_html-8"]
  • [do_widget id="fbw_id-2"]
  • [do_widget id="pw_profile_widget-2"]
  • [do_widget id="text-30"]
  • [do_widget id="custom_html-10"]
  • [do_widget id="text-36"]
  • [do_widget id="text-11"]
  • [do_widget id="recent-posts-2"]
  • [do_widget id="text-35"]
  • [do_widget id="custom_html-11"]
  • [do_widget id="text-7"]
  • [do_widget id="text-8"]
• [do_widget_area widgets_sidebar2]
• [do_widget_area widgets_sidebar3]
• [do_widget_area wp_inactive_widgets]
  • [do_widget id="custom_html-7"]
  • [do_widget id="simple-social-icons-3"]
  • [do_widget id="categories-4"]
  • [do_widget id="text-31"]
  • [do_widget id="custom_html-5"]
  • [do_widget id="custom_html-4"]
  • [do_widget id="search-2"]