DIY Homemade Vanilla Tutorial

I decided to make some homemade vanilla for Christmas gifts this year.  I bought all the supplies and my sisters and mom are also doing some for gifts.

Here is what you will need:

• 1.75 liter of  Vodka. low-mid grade is fine (if you read the ingredients on a bottle of vanilla extract, the first thing listed is alcohol)

• 7 vanilla beans (you can add more if you would like)

• Sharp knife

• cutting board

• 30; 2 oz (15; 4 oz) Amber colored bottle to dispense as gifts.

This process is so easy!  All you do is:

Cut the vanilla beans lengthwise (they stained my white cutting board, just an FYI)

Scoop out the inside of the bean. Just drag your knife along the inside of the bean. (optional, you could put them in sliced and not "scooped", but I thought it might speed up the extraction process)

 Drop the beans AND the "Scooped bean mush" in the bottle of Vodka.

Put the lid back on the bottle, shake it up and store it in a place away from direct sunlight and shake once a week or so. Let sit for at least 8 weeks.

The Vodka extracts the flavor and color from the vanilla beans.  This bottle has been sitting for about 3 weeks.  See how everything settles at the bottom?  That's why you shake it up every few days. The longer the bottle sits, the stronger the extract will be.  Homemade vanilla is not as dark as store bought vanilla, but it tastes wonderful!

 BEANS:
I did a lot of research on what types of beans and the best prices for them.  I bought my beans from Amazon.  The link to the beans I bought is HERE.  They were $27.69 for a 1/2 pound.  I used a $5 Swagbuck gift card on them too so I paid $22.69. :)  I've used 35 beans among 5 bottles and I am going to add a few more per bottle over the summer.  I would estimate each 1/2 pound package has 60-70 beans in it.

VODKA:
I live in UT and this state is not very "liquor friendly". lol  I bought my first bottle from a UT liquor store and it cost me $24 after taxes.  Another lady in the store at the time was buying a bottle for her husband and was very excited it was on sale for $19.99 (ya, taxes on it were KILLER!).  I've heard from a friend in WY they can get them for $8 a bottle on sale.  I bought 4 more bottles while we were in Colorado and I paid $11 each after taxes.  ~So, moral of the story is.....if you live in Utah, want to make homemade vanilla, are going out of state this summer and you are cheap.....buy your Vodka out of state. :)

BOTTLES:
I haven't purchased my little bottles yet.  I'm still researching prices.  It seems they are about .70 a bottle and they are cheaper if you can buy in bulk.  I don't have to have the bottles until Christmas time, so I have time to search. ;)

To bottle the extract you can strain it through a coffee filter to get rid of the "floaties" and then bottle it and stick a cute little tag or label on it.  You can also leave part of a bean in the small bottle and instruct the receiver that they can refill with Vodka and start the process all over again with the bean inside the bottle.

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