Teach it Tuesday: DIY Vanilla Extract

When I discovered how ridiculously easy it is to make your own vanilla extract I decided right then and there that I would never buy it from the store again. With only two ingredients and about 45 seconds of your time, you too can have delicious vanilla extract catered to your baking and cooking needs. 😉

DIY Vanilla Extract

All you will need is vanilla beans, vodka, and a container to put it in that has an airtight seal. I actually picked up my containers at a local craft store. Really, for things like extracts or essential oils you should use the amber glass bottles. The darker bottles help extend the shelf life of the extracts by keeping out the sunlight. However, I like the idea of being able to see all my pretty extracts, especially when I branch into making orange or raspberry or something that has a pretty color of its own .

Just put the vanilla beans in your container and fill with vodka, leaving a half an inch or so from the top. Now put it somewhere out of this sunlight where it can age. My husband used some that I made after it only aged for like 2 weeks he said it was awesome. The longer that you let it age, the stronger that it will get and as you use some you can top it off with vodka to kinda have an ongoing source.

The darker of these two was from the original two I made for this tutorial and is six weeks old. The lighter was made three weeks ago after we flew through the first one with lots of baking.