Homemade Vanilla Extract is Simple to Make

If you do any baking, you know that good quality vanilla extract is expensive. That’s because vanilla beans, the dried and cured fruit pods used in extract, come from the vanilla orchid which grows primarily in Mexico, Tahiti, and Madagascar. The orchids produce seed pods that must be pollinated by hand as there is only one natural pollinator, the Mexican bee. Most vanilla orchids no longer appear in the wild due to over-harvesting and habitat reduction. So the cost of vanilla beans and vanilla products comes at a premium.

But making your own is simple and satisfying. Plus you can control the depth of flavor based on how many vanilla beans you use per bottle. As a bonus, Homemade Vanilla Extract is a great gift at Christmas or any time of year. Once you bottle it, it needs 2-3 months to develop a deep vanilla flavor. You can speed it up by adding a larger ratio of beans for 8 ounces of vodka.

You only need two ingredients to make vanilla extract: vodka and high-quality vanilla beans. You also need bottles. Here are my recommendations:

Vanilla Beans

Madagascar Beans from Slo Food Group are high-quality beans at a great price. Get the 25-count pack, which totals less than a dollar per bean. The beans are supple and develop a deep vanilla flavor in a shorter amount of time. And if you don’t use all of them to make extracts for your family and friends, you can use the remaining beans right away with excellent results in any baked good, ice cream, pudding, coffee drinks, or whatever you imagine. The seeds scrape out easily and the empty pod can be tucked into a container of granulated sugar to make vanilla sugar.

Vodka

You can use ANY vodka you prefer; cheap is fine for making extract. For making mixed drinks, Tito’s is my preference, but for extract, I love Seagrams Extra Smooth Vodka. You can get it at Walmart or any retailer. But again, feel free to get the cheap, store brand if you prefer.

Bottles

I love the 8-ounce, Boston Round Bottles. They look beautiful and are tall enough to hold the beans. Another option is this Swing-Top 8-ounce Bottles which look a little fancier for gift giving. You may have noticed that when you purchase vanilla extract it almost always comes in a brown bottle. The dark bottle helps protect the vanilla extract from degrading over its long shelf life – which is forever. However, I don’t recommend that you bottle your homemade vanilla extract in the dark bottles because then you won’t be able to see the aging process. Homemade extract will start out very light in color and darken as it ages and the flavor develops.

As a bonus, here are some free labels for your Homemade Vanilla Extract! You can print them on Avery labels to adhere directly to the bottle. Or you can print them on any paper or card stock of your choice, punch a hole in the corner and thread a ribbon or twine around the neck of the bottle and they are gift-ready.

Homemade Vanilla Extract

Two ingredients are all you need to make your own rich vanilla extract to use or give as gifts.

5 from 1 vote

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Total Time 10 minutes mins

Course Gifts from the Kitchen

Servings 6 8-ounce bottles

Equipment

• 6 8-ounce bottles
• 8-ounce liquid measuring cup optional
• funnel optional

Ingredients

  

• 24 vanilla beans
• 48 ounces vodka

Instructions

 

• Wash bottles thoroughly or run them through the dishwasher to clean and dry them.
• To each of the six 8-ounce bottles, add 4 vanilla beans.
  
• Add 8 ounces of vodka to each bottle of vanilla beans to cover beans completely. You may need to push the beans farther into the bottle.
• Cover with lids and set in cool, dry, dark place like a pantry for 2-3 months before using in order for flavor to fully develop.
• Keeps indefinitely. Vodka can be added to replenish extract.

Keyword easy to make, fast & easy, for the baker in your life, Gifts from the kitchen, give as gifts, homemade vanilla extract, hostess gifts, two ingredients