One of the basic staples of baking is vanilla. In every sweet recipe vanilla is the one ingredient that is used every time. Now real vanilla can get spendy especially if you do a lot of baking like I do. One of the best and easiest recipes that I have that I will never by store bought again is homemade vanilla. It tastes great, if not better than the store bought stuff, and you can make it for a fraction of the price.
All you need is, (get ready this list is long... and complicated...)
- Vanilla beans
- Vodka or other hard alcohol
Yup that's it 2 ingredients and little bit of patience.
Okay so to start, I order my vanilla beans online. You can find them reasonably priced at either Amazon, or Ebay. I buy grade B which are just fine for making vanilla they are just a little bit drier than grade A and since we are soaking them in Alcohol there is no need to spend the extra money.
Now another side note. I use smaller bottles like the clear swing top ones to 'brew' my vanilla in. Mostly so I can have 2 going at the same time, and I can make sure I never run out. But if you wanna just add the vanilla beans to vodka bottle that works just fine to.
The next step is cut your vanilla beans length wise to open them up to get the most flavor out of the wonderful little beans.
As a general rule you want to use 7 vanilla beans for 1 cup Alcohol.
Now add your beans to your jars, top off with alcohol and let rest in a dark cupboard for at least 6 weeks. I know the patience part is the worst.
I add a piece of tape with the bottled date on it so that I know when it will be ready to use. Once this bottle is about 1/2 empty I'll top it off with more vodka and stick it back in the cupboard for another 6 weeks while I work on using the second bottle I have stashed away.
You can only reuse the beans once, but you will still get great color and flavor from them on your second 'pour'. Once the beans are fully used up I place them in a ziplock in the fridge and add to my coffee beans before brewing a pot of coffee in the morning and you get the best vanilla flavored coffee!
Now you may have noticed that I did mention that you can use other hard alcohol such as rum, everclear, I suppose you could even use whiskey if that's your thing. The best part about making things from scratch is the versatility. Have fun!
Once you get the hang of making your own vanilla you HAVE GOT to try making your own Kahlua seriously its amazing and soooo much cheaper you will never go back.
All you need is, (get ready this list is long... and complicated...)
- Vanilla beans
- Vodka or other hard alcohol
Yup that's it 2 ingredients and little bit of patience.
Okay so to start, I order my vanilla beans online. You can find them reasonably priced at either Amazon, or Ebay. I buy grade B which are just fine for making vanilla they are just a little bit drier than grade A and since we are soaking them in Alcohol there is no need to spend the extra money.
Now another side note. I use smaller bottles like the clear swing top ones to 'brew' my vanilla in. Mostly so I can have 2 going at the same time, and I can make sure I never run out. But if you wanna just add the vanilla beans to vodka bottle that works just fine to.
The next step is cut your vanilla beans length wise to open them up to get the most flavor out of the wonderful little beans.
Now add your beans to your jars, top off with alcohol and let rest in a dark cupboard for at least 6 weeks. I know the patience part is the worst.
You can only reuse the beans once, but you will still get great color and flavor from them on your second 'pour'. Once the beans are fully used up I place them in a ziplock in the fridge and add to my coffee beans before brewing a pot of coffee in the morning and you get the best vanilla flavored coffee!
Now you may have noticed that I did mention that you can use other hard alcohol such as rum, everclear, I suppose you could even use whiskey if that's your thing. The best part about making things from scratch is the versatility. Have fun!
Once you get the hang of making your own vanilla you HAVE GOT to try making your own Kahlua seriously its amazing and soooo much cheaper you will never go back.
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